Gates of Avalon
by Crytsalpath
Summary: My name is Clare and I was a happy teenager living in San Diego California, then my dad died and mom went crazy, now I am a air mage who is suppose to protect a place called Avalon along with three other mages who I both despise and care for. Oh, no.
1. 800 year earlier

**Prologue**

_Action and reaction, ebb and flow, trial and error, change - this is the rhythm of living. Out of our over-confidence, fear; out of our fear, clearer vision, fresh hope. And out of hope, progress. _

–Bruce Barton

**~800 years earlier~**

"Audra, what do thee think?" asked a lady with pale skin and shiny black hair. I had lost myself for a second. I was in King Edmond, king of the Eastern Lands' castle. We were sitting in the conference room, one of the only places everybody could fit. Queen Madeline, queen of the Western Lands sat with her legs crossed on the west side of the table. Her brown hair was worn straight down and dress clung loosely onto her. King Lancelot, King of the Southern Lands sat at the south of the table. He wore a black button down suit and his wife who stood beside him was wearing a lovely white gown that went nicely with her blonde hair. King Zuki, king of the Northern Lands sat at the north of the table with his wife, Queen Sydney standing closely behind him. They both wore thick clothes that were the only show of the cold land they came from. King Edmond sat, obviously on his normal side of the table, the east side. He wore his normal nice suit and his beautiful wife (who I thought looked patient and calm as she stood behind him) wore a beautiful dress made of the finest silk.

The Protectors, Rhodanthe (the mage of water), Herman (the mage of fire), Jaromir (the mage of Earth), and I (the mage of air) all stood behind Queen Madeline (who was the queen of where we lived). We were discussing the gates of Avalon which obviously was the only thing that could ever cause such a meeting. I already knew Queen Madeline was the only one who trusted the Protectors to do their job and keep Jerold and his evil followers from stealing the magic of Avalon. Although I had heard Queen Katrina more than once bend down to talk to her husband King Edmond about the Protectors and what a fine job we had done so far.

I sighed, I despised my ancestor who had made the treaty saying the Protectors would take care of Avalon and meet every dozen years to discuss Avalon's safety in exchange for living in peace.

"She doesn't know what to think. Her mind is stuck in the past," growled Herman impatiently waiting for my answer.

"Temper Herman, temper," I warned before sinking back in thought. _Let me answer._ I begged Herman before seeing both choices. It was either I believe my friends and I could keep Avalon safe (which Jerold had made a very hard task to do) or close the gates of Avalon, stopping big flows of magic. I was saddened at the thought of closing the gates of Avalon, which would mean magical creatures and plants would all disappear on Earth and at the thought that me and my friends would be the only ones with very powerful magic (not that we weren't already very powerful but other creatures had a good amount of power too). But on the other hand everyone would be safe. Wasn't my job as leader of the Protectors to care about safety first? It was I knew it was. This meant I only had one choice.

"The gates of Avalon should be closed," I saw all of the kings and queens stare at me startled.

King Zuki was the first one to speak. "As is your will, my fine lady. The gates of Avalon shall be closed," he said. His words joined up the meeting.

"What were you thinking!" hissed Herman. We now stood outside in our favorite meadow.

"You should know, you were probably listening to them the whole time," I said. He turned on me, growling. He hated when I brought up his power in this way. He was unable to control what he heard.

"I am going to miss this place," Jaromir whispered sadly as he sat raising a flower slowly watching each leaf bloom and grow.

"We aren't going anywhere," I pointed out softly as I came over to stand beside him.

"It will never be the same though," Rhodanthe said throwing rain in the sky from a nearby puddle creating rainbows. Herman nodded his head in agreement as he walked up to Rhodanthe wrapping his arm around her waist and pointing his other hand at her raindrops creating a brighter rainbow. She smiled slightly. As the healer she rarely showed pain which hurt me the most.

"Nothing is going to happen except that the gates of Avalon will close making everyone on Earth safe," I pointed out looking surprised as Jaromir hopped up.

"No, it won't be. The Earth, itself will lose magic and eventually we will. The Protectors have no purpose anymore. Now we are no better than powerful witches and wizards," he stormed. The fire in his eyes made me step back in panic. His eyes softened, apologizing silently before turning and storming off into the forest. I looked over at Rhodanthe and Herman and closed my eyes when I saw her pain and his anger. I turned and flew away in a single jump.

I landed in my favorite tree. It was too tall for someone to see me from the ground so I felt very safe up here. In the spring there would usually be birds but not now in the fall. Although fall usually brought the wind which brought me happiness I could find no joy in it now. I looked off into the sky.

The clouds seem to taunt me as usual. I couldn't go to high for fear of losing oxygen which meant I could usually just barely get above the clouds. But this time they taunted me for they seemed to be darkening into a storm which reminded me of my troubles rather than helping me relax.

"Someday, they will be thankful the gates of Avalon are closed," I vowed, glancing up at the bright sky, _hopefully._

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**How do you like it so far? Please review. Oh and I am planning on atleast Audra coming back into the story later on but these are not the main charecters, this part is just important to remember because it explains what is happening later on.**

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	2. The Dream

**Chapter 1**

**The Dream**

And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything.

–William Shakespeare

Everything had happened so fast these last couple months. Everything seemed to be falling apart. First my father died in a car accident. My mother had received a message from the police that he had been found dead at 7AM on a Tuesday three months ago. After that we had to have his funereal and my mom seemed to slowly die. For the first couple weeks she was okay and she took care of me. Then slowly she stopped doing things like making breakfast, driving me to school, talking to friends, answering the phone, reading books, going to the grocery store, taking care of the pets, then she even stopped going to work and things got really bad. We quickly started running out of money and people started to notice that she wasn't taking care of me. I started working after school but there were some things I couldn't pay for, like the house. So three months later my grandparents finally stepped in and now I am in Glens Falls, New York, thousands of miles from my mom and my friends. I thought of my friends Jessica and Liliann. Would I ever see them again? I didn't think so. Tears swept down my face. And I turned towards the front door. I stood in the living room. The thick carpet, comfortable looking couches, and tables with vases full of wild flowers all had seem to happy when I got here. It still seemed that way. I walked straight towards the door calling to my grandmother that I was going out.

"Don't be long," she called back. That was one thing I liked about my grandparents. Unlike my mom they weren't overly protective. Thinking about my mom just made me sadder. I shook it off quickly and wiped my eyes dry before walking outside. I circled around the house to the backyard. It was spring and the trees and garden were both a beautiful green. I hopped over the fence into the forest. My grandma had brought me back here a couple of days ago trying to impress me with the beautiful forest. It had worked. I love the woods and although I missed San Diego I have to admit I didn't miss the heat.

I stopped when I reached the end of the forest where the forest turned into a clearing that surrounded a small river. I kneeled down bringing my hands to my face as I let the last couple months' pain come out in tears.

"My dear, why are you crying?" asked a voice. My head jerked up. I expected to be in the same place I was before but I wasn't, I was in a clearing surrounded by four large stones that towered overhead. I stood up and glanced around. To my left was an orange crystal that seemed to glow in the sunlight. As I reached to touch it I felt warmth spread through me reminding me of sitting in the sun in San Diego. Pulling back I turned to look at the stone behind me. It was blue and almost clear. I reached to touch it and felt cool and wet as if I had just gone swimming. I pulled back and ran my hand through my hair. It was dry. I turned to my left again to a green stone. It sparkled like a gemstone. As I reached to touch it I could smell leafs and dirt like I was standing in the middle of a rainforest. Turning back to the way I had been first facing I stood in front of a white rock that shined like a pearl. I reached forward and felt a breeze blow my hair back. I had always loved the wind. It made me feel powerful, peaceful, free, and happy. I touched the stone. It felt cool under my hand and I closed my eyes. Then I heard what sounded like a woman's voice. As she spoke the words seemed to form in my head.

She said, "Gates of Avalon, closed tightly for so long, brings unknown dangers. Four have been chosen, the war of magic begins now, may air light your path." My eyes seemed to open twice as I pulled my hand away from the stone and found myself standing back in the same place in the forest I had first been. I slowly backed away, panicking. I then turned away and ran back towards my grandparents' house.

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**Yeah, this chapter wasn't the best. Don't worry it will get better. The next couple chapters are going to be boring though because Claire is still kind of freaked out and confused by this whole thing.**

**Claire: Hey I heard that! How would you feel if all of the sudden people started yelling prophecys at you?**

**Hmm...good point. Anyways, please review.**

**Claire: plllleeeeaassseee**

**^..^*Crystalpath*^..^**


	3. The Beginning

**Chapter 2**

**The Beginning**

_The only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn and change. _

–_Carl Rogers_

Yesterday's "adventure" was now long forgotten although the words I had heard seemed to echo in my head as I rubbed the last of the sleep out of my eyes. Today was my first day of my new school. I was going to Queesburg High School. It is March, the middle of the school year. For some reason I wasn't surprised by my bad luck. So as I walked down the stairs fully dressed I couldn't help but wish that I was at home and that I could go back to before my dad had died and mom had turned into a zombie. I pulled back tears before they could wet my face making my eyes red and makeup run right before I went to school.

"Good morning Claire," said my grandpa as he pulled me in a hug then let me go as I mumbled a good morning and made my escape into the kitchen. The sun had risen and brightened the kitchen. The smell of pancakes made my mouth water as I sat down at the table. My grandmother said good morning to me and my grandpa (he had fallowed me and now sat in the seat beside me) then placed a plate of pancakes and fruit in front of me. Once she had said good morning to me the rest of the morning was quiet. I ate quickly and finished only a couple minutes before my grandma looked at the clock and said that we had to go or I would be late for school. I grabbed my backpack, checked my hair one last time in the hallway mirror, and then fallowed her out into the car calling goodbye to my grandpa as I walked out the door.

The school looked big which helped some. If it was big then there were a lot of students and I could easily disappear in big crowds of kids for the rest of the day. I hopped out of the car smiling and saying goodbye to my grandma as she wished me a good first day of school and telling me she would pick me up after school. Then she was gone. I turned back to the school and took a deep breath and walked through the doors. I emerged into a hall of kids. Like I had expected there were a lot of kids. I easily slipped into a crowd as I rushed to the office to get my classes. Once I emerged into the office the bell rang and everyone in the hall hurried to class. Perfect, I was going to be late for my first class on my first day of school. I sighed as I walked up to the desk and waited until the lady at the desk noticed me and got off the phone. It took a couple of minutes so I looked around. It was a normal office with a row of chairs against the wall, white walls, and behind the lady sitting at the front desk there were tables, shelves, and papers.

"May I help you," asked the lady, who had finally got off of the phone.

"I am Claire," I said introducing myself, "I am new to this school and was just here to-" I stopped when a boy walking outside the office window caught my eye. He glanced at me and everything seemed to freeze. He had to be my age but looked at least four inches taller than me. He looked up at me as he passed the window. Those three second seemed to take three hours. I was able to see his brownish red hair and tan skin. His eyes glowed like the sun.

"Ah yes, here are your classes Claire," said the lady making me look back over at her as she handed me a piece of paper then she got out a map of the school and highlighted where I had to go for each class. I ignored her and glanced back out the window but the guy was gone.

"Now come, I will take you to your first class," the lady said grabbing my attention again.

"No, it is fine. I can-" I started but she interrupted me.

"I have to explain to the teacher why you are late for class," she said ignoring me and stepping out. She led my first class as I took a chance to look for the boy I had seen before but I saw nothing. Once we came to the class I immediately wished I had gotten to school earlier. The whole class looked up at me as I walked in. I tried to ignore the glances and the mumbles about me as I walked up to the teacher with the lady from the desk closely behind me. I was about to introduce myself but she beat me to it.

"Good morning Mr. Stephen," the lady said. Now I knew why she wanted to come to this class with me. She blushed as he stood up and said good morning then turned to me.

"I am guessing this is Claire, my newest addition to my class," he said.

She nodded and said, "I just gave her, her classes so she is a bit late." He nodded and thanked her for bringing me there. She wished me luck and said good bye to Mr. Stephen before turning and hurrying out of the classroom.

"Class, this is Claire. She is our new student from California and I expect you to welcome her warmly," said Mr. Stephen as he gripped my shoulders and turned me to the class. I was sure I turned a deep red as I pulled from his grasp and took a seat in the back of the classroom trying to ignore all of the eyes that fallowed me. I silently cursed the teacher as I reached and pulled a notebook out of my backpack as I sat down then turned my attention straight to the teacher. This was apparently my English class which was luckily the easiest class for me because they were just finishing up a book report so I didn't have to do anything.

This was good because I didn't think I would be able to focus if I tried. Thoughts of the weird…I didn't know what to call it. A dream, but I hadn't been asleep. Maybe a daydream but I hadn't been in control of it like a normal daydream. I for a second believed that there was a prophecy. When I was younger (okay maybe just a year and a half ago but still) I loved to daydream about having powers. About something beyond what humans knew. I guessed it was normal for younger kids to do that, to make up an imaginary world, to want to feel special. Wasn't that what everyone wanted, to be special, to be different and yet still be normal?

I shook my head. My mind was wondering off in a direction I prefer not to go at this specific moment. I tried to focus ahead of me when I felt someone's stare. I glanced and noticed a couple people glanced at me every now and then. But then I saw him. He was sitting by another girl with brown, short hair. Her hair was straight in a v-cut. It waved at the bottom framing her face nicely. Behind him sat another guy with pale skin and short black hair. I guessed that on anyone else the black hair would make them look a sickly white but on him it actually looked good. All three of them were staring at me. I immediately turned my head away blushing slightly. Then I noticed why they were staring at me. All of my books were floating. I blinked and they were all back in place. What had happened? I blinked again in confusion but nothing happened. I don't know how long I sat there staring at my stuff like an idiot before the bell rang snapping me out of it. In one movement I swept my books into my backpack and headed out of the door.

I had almost made it safely away from the classroom when I heard someone call my name. I turned expecting to see one of those kids but glad to see someone else. The person who had called my name was a guy with short dark brown hair and light, happy green eyes. He was smiling as he bounced over to me. Oh no, I thought. In my old school I was a loner. I was the shy, although nice enough girl who no one cared about, well I had a couple friends but we all preferred to stay away from the other kids.

"Hello my name is Chris," he said clearly expecting a response so I mumbled a greeting and nice to meet you before unsuccessfully trying to turn and walk away. He right away started speaking again.

"What is your next class?" he asked.

I slipped off my backpack; I would have to put my stuff in my locker during lunch. I slipped out a piece of paper with my classes from the books and folders my grandmother had bought me. Pulling it out I glanced at the paper.

"I have Algebra with Mrs. Thorn," I said silently laughing at the name. A perfect name for the teacher of my most hated class.

"Same class as me," said a female voice behind me. I looked over my shoulder to see a girl with long blonde hair and a guy with slightly long light brown hair fallowing close behind her. The "it" girl and her pet I could almost hear my friend, Liliann saying. I sighed guessing what the girl would say next (after introducing herself, obviously).

"I am Heather," said the girl flipping her hair proving me correct. Heather obviously thought she was beautiful and totally cool. "I will show you to your next class if you want," also proving me correct. I sighed. Then I was surprised to hear another voice behind me.

"No, I will," it was the guy. I saw behind him his friends were glaring at him but he ignored them and swooped around me and towards where I hoped my next class was. I followed him keeping up with him easily. He paused in the hall once we were alone.

"You are new here aren't you," he asked although it wasn't an exact question so I just nodded. He growled and mumbled under his breath. Then he started at me again, "Have you had any weird dreams, or heard anything unusual?" That was defiantly a question but the bell rung before I could answer. He started talking under his breath again but said nothing as he led me the rest of the way to class.

I went up to the teacher and she just greeted me then signaled for me to take a seat. I already liked this teacher. But immediately I disliked her once she started making a long lecture causing me to have to write notes the whole period all while the guy was staring at me from the seat behind me. I did my best to ignore him as I continued writing notes. Every second passed slowly until finally the bell rung. I turned quickly to speak to him but he was already out of his seat exiting the room.

The next class the guy wasn't there but his friends were. It was Spanish and luckily both of them didn't seem to care a bit about me. It was at the end of the class that I started getting nervous. I just wanted to go straight to my locker, put my stuff away then eat lunch. But as I got to the door I tripped and my books fell on the floor. I bent to collect them but someone else beat me to it. I looked up to see the guy with the black hair.

"Thank you," I mumbled as he handed me the books.

"I am guessing William didn't introduce me. I am Joseph," he said.

"Oh, no he didn't introduce you, but it is nice to meet you," I said smiling politely. Then the girl came up and tapped Joseph on the shoulder.

"Oh Kelly this is Claire, Claire this is Kelly. Man, I am getting as bad as William," he said.

"Nice to meet you Claire," Kelly said smiling sweetly although I could hear no greeting in her voice, "we should go find William," she said turning her back to me giving me a chance to escape. I took the chance and mumbled that I had to go before turning back into the hall. I took out my schedule and read the locker number. Quickly walking through the hall counting down locker numbers until I came to mine, I unloaded the stuff I wouldn't need and turned toward the way the map said the cafeteria was. I was walking when I heard voices. I hurried faster; I was in no mood for talking. I forced myself faster and faster until finally I came to a room with a door labeled cafeteria. I went in happy to leave the voice behind me.

The rest of the day passed by quickly, Mr. Stephen was luckily the only one who introduced me, and luckily after lunch was World History then Art my two favorite subjects. But the second school was over I raced out to the front tables moving fast enough that I felt like I was going fast but not bringing any attention to myself. I sat at the table and did homework as I waited for my grandmother. Then a book slammed down beside me. I looked up at William, Joseph, and Kelly making me spring up to my feet in surprise.

"Uh," I started unable to gather my thoughts fast enough.

"You have had the prophecy haven't you," started Joseph. I liked how his voice was calm, reasonable.

I took a deep breath then answered, "What do you mean by _the prophecy_?"

"He means a dream. It should have been about four stones and a lady told you about the gates of Avalon being closed," said Kelly gently looking sternly at the two guys.

"You had that dream too?" I asked relieved at first but five second later I wish I hadn't. Kelly looked surprised and Kelly turned and walked away. The two guys stopped her and they all gathered talking quietly. They each occasionally looked over at me until I recognized my grandma's car and walked over to it diving into the safety of the car with all of my stuff as fast as possible.

I closed my eyes as I sat down, the prophecy once again repeating itself in my head. Was I going crazy? I didn't feel crazy. But did anyone ever feel crazy? I took a deep breath trying to calm myself. My grandmother was looking at me worriedly.

"How was school?" she asked studying me carefully. I couldn't tell her the truth about see the prophecy and the kids. It just felt weird. What would I say anyways? Hey Grandma, I had this weird dream when I was in the forest and these kids seem to already know about it which is weird because I didn't tell them about it. Yeah, that was defiantly a conversation I was not going to have anytime soon.

So I just smiled and said, "It was okay. I am just tired." At first she seemed reluctant to believe my kind of lame excuse for looking so crazy when I first got in the car but after a moment she muttered that we were almost home and focused on her driving.

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**Do you know what I love? **

**Claire: What?**

**When people review my story. :)**

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	4. The Meeting

**Chapter 3**

**The Meeting**

_Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are. _

–_Bertolt Brecht_

The next two weeks I spent trying to keep myself busy. I felt a strong homesickness and spent a lot of my time just redoing things like redecorating my room, redoing homework, and memorizing the way to walk safely around the house. Let's just say if there is a fire in the middle of a moonless night I was prepared.

Today was my second Saturday here and it was actual a very pretty day. The sun sneaked out of the clouds lighting the land with its beautiful orange glow. Even my loving grandparents, who didn't seem to know what to do with me, went outside. My grandpa messing with the front lawn, pulling out weeds, and mowing the grass to perfection as my grandma played with her garden, pulling weeds, watering her flowers, and planting some new seeds. I tried unsuccessfully to stay inside but after half an hour I couldn't handle it. I grabbed my shoes and after calling to tell my grandma I was going out for a bit I walked to the forest avoiding the place where I had gotten that dream. I walked in no certain direction always making sure I was walking straight so I wouldn't get lost. Finally I came to a tree with long branches that dropped in a circle creating a tent like sculpture. I took a quick look around and walked in. Inside it was beautiful. Weeds were growing up the branches of the tree leaving only one way to get in and out, like a green cave. Leaves and grass softened the ground making it almost carpet like. Some ferns and small flowers grew at random place inside. It was warm but moist like a green house.

I sat down and curled so that my head lay on my knees as I closed my eyes. I took a deep breath preparing myself for tears that never came. I don't know how long I sat there until I heard footsteps outside. I froze lifting my head up. I quietly rolled onto my hands and knees and turned so I faced the entrance. I heard the steps coming closer and backed up searching frantically for an exit. Then I froze as the footsteps came to a stop by the entrance. The feet were out of view so I couldn't see if it was animal or human. But then I heard more footsteps running in the direction of the tree. I gulped hoping whatever was out there wouldn't come in. If it was a mom and her babies she would be protective and if it was humans then they could either be nice or I might need to start running. I glanced around me and I now saw the problem with one entrance, nowhere to escape to.

Then I heard some talking and although I couldn't make out what they were saying I could hear that it was defiantly human. I sighed out in relieve. At least with humans I had a chance at survival.

"Hello," I whispered surprised how strong my voice came. I had expected it to sound shaky. I was gaining confidence when the person stuck their head in. I stopped breathing in shock. It was Joseph.

"Hello," Joseph said sweetly. I had tried so hard to avoid the four the last couple weeks that I realized I knew nothing about them. Joseph sounded nice. He turned away from the tunnel and I heard him say may name as he told his friends I was in here. Then I heard them saying something so quietly I couldn't understand. Then Joseph came in. I gulped, as nice as Joseph seemed to be I did not want to be cornered in a cave like tree by a guy. I stood up so I at least felt more in power as I inched towards the door.

"Sorry, I hope I didn't interrupt," Joseph said sitting down. As he sat down I instantly felt more comfortable.

"No, it is okay. I was just leaving," I started but Joseph grabbed my hand as I turned toward the entrance.

"No, I hope you don't mind but I would enjoy the company. I need time to get away from "the prophecy"," Joseph said adding air quotes around the prophecy. He rolled his eyes, "it seems that ever since you came that has all they cared about."

"I heard that!" I heard a girl yell in at us. I guessed it was Kelly. We both fell silent then laughed quietly. I stared at the wall, being my normal shy self.

"So, you moved here from California," Joseph said although he seemed to form it in more of a question then a statement.

"Yeah, I moved here to live with my grandparents," I said.

"You don't seem to like it here. Joseph stated.

I laughed slightly, "I am just shy, I guess you can say. I had a really close friend back in California and I am just homesick. You know? It is beautiful here, just it isn't home." I looked over at him hoping he wasn't taking any of this offensively.

"Yeah, I guess if I moved away from here I wouldn't be exactly happy either," he said thoughtfully looking at me sympathetically. I turned away, I didn't want his sympathy. I did need to talk to someone though. But many people wouldn't understand or care.

He must have seen my hesitating because he said, "it is okay if you rather talk about something else."

"No, it is okay. It is just…not many people understand," I sighed. "Do you know why I was sent here?"

"No, I only know you moved in with your grandma and use to live somewhere in California," he said.

I nodded, "I lived near San Diego, and it was great. I lived there since I was only two. I went to school, had good friends, and was as normal as I believe possible," I laughed, "I actually had wished at the time that my life would be a little more interesting. But then…" I stopped looking down at my hands. I took a deep breath before I continued, "It was early in the morning, and my mom had received a call. My father had died in a bad car accident on his way to work. At first my mom was okay, just sad. But then it got worst. Soon she stopped cooking, working, cleaning, and even talking. She forgot to take care of me or herself. When other people started noticing there was some talk about sending her to a house for crazy people and putting me up for adoption. My grandparents eventually heard about this and decided to take me so I would be out of the way when people started trying to take care of my mom," tears washed down my face. I was surprised when Joseph sat down beside me. He reached up and whipped off my tears. I was surprised when my face felt clean as if he had washed it off with a wash cloth.

"I know what you mean, my parents both died when I was 7. This means I am just old enough I can remember them but too young to understand what was going on at the time. I live with my mother's sister and her husband. They are kind of like my adopted parents. But when I first came here I had no friends. Kelly was the only one who didn't look at me weird," he looked over at me, "I know the whole magic power thing seems to freak you out but that is where the story kind of brings us."

"You have powers?" I meant to be nice about it but I was too shocked maybe I wasn't the only crazy one.

"Yeah, I found out about them one day when Kelly had hurt herself playing tag," he said watching me carefully as if waiting to see my reaction. "She cut herself. I was the first one to get to her and I had been focusing so hard on helping her that I hadn't even noticed what I had been doing," he turned away looking up at the roof of the tree cave. "I had just touched her scratch focusing on healing it and it healed. Not even a scar was left," he shook his head, "I know it sounds crazy but-,"

"I believe you," I said although I didn't know if I really did. But I had to admit I was beginning to believe in the whole powers thing which scared me. "I did have the dream and I saw that those things were floating in the class, but…" I shook my head I couldn't really have powers I was going crazy. "Do the others have powers?" I asked.

"Yeah, and elements, I can control water…," he said reaching his hand up and closing it into a fist and immediately and dew on the leaves were around his hand like a glove. He opened his hand letting the water fall, "…and heal." I stared in surprise closing my mouth when I noticed it was open. "Kelly can control Earth and can transport things," he said.

"Transport things? Like make things disappear?" I asked confused.

"Like making things disappear in one spot and appear in another. It is a very useful power and she uses it often when passing notes or doing chores" he laughed at a hidden joke, "she loved her power the most out of all of us I think. She calls it a gift."

"And William, he didn't join you until later, right? What happen to him," I asked now completely interested. I still didn't know if I believed any of this but it was hard not to like the story.

"William moved here only a year ago. He is adjusting the worst so far," Joseph lowered his voice, "he has had problems in his family and I think he was basically kidnapped by his own mother and brought here." Joseph looked at the entrance, "he doesn't talk about it much." We both sat there quietly for a bit before he started again, "William has the power of fire and speed. His power is much less useful to him but it fits him, I guess." Joseph shook his head pushing away a memory, "I know you don't like talking about the dream but can you remember what you heard?"

I nodded and took a deep breath remembering the exact words perfectly as if they were imprinted on my mind, "Gates of Avalon, closed tightly for so long, brings unknown dangers. Four have been chosen, the war of magic begins now, may air light your path." He looked surprised, "is that right?"

"Yes, but a couple of things have changed," he said still looking shocked. "Kelly, William!" he called. They were there before I could even blink. Kelly had just appeared and William had been a blur as he came through the entrance. I remembered what Joseph had just told me about their powers but for some reason that didn't lessen my surprise. "Claire," Joseph said taking hold of my shoulder with one hand, "tell them about the dream," he said. His scared look scared me out of my shock. I nodded and told them what I had heard.

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**Claire: DUN DUN DUN! You leave off on alot of cliff hangers...**

**Yeah I know, it makes the story more interesting so people must continue reading it MOL (muahahahaha out loud)**

**Claire: *rolls eyes* Please review**

**Agreed!**

**^..^*Crystalpath*^..^**


	5. Research

**Chapter 4**

**Research**

Never doubt that you can change history. You already have.

–Marge Piercy

When I had told them they had all sat in shock only occasionally whispering something about no time and different. I was confused but I was afraid to ask them what they meant. Finally Kelly spoke to me, "we all received dreams with our elements," she looked to Joseph. I guessed she was checking to make sure he had told me about the powers. He nodded and she continued, "So your element is air, as I had expected." I nodded.

"But one thing is different," William joined in. I looked to him as he spoke; he seemed to be staring off in no certain direction.

"When you heard war begins now," Joseph said explaining. He was actually looked at me and I was surprised to find he was actually pretty calm now, "we heard a war shall come."

"Which means," Kelly said, "whatever war is coming is about to begin."

"I sense a study extravaganza coming on," Joseph said part laughing although I thought I heard some fear mixed in.

Kelly ignored him and said, "You know where to find me," then just like she had come she disappeared into thin air. I stared at the spot she had been in surprise.

William was also staring at where she had been as he said, "and I should do a danger check," he said getting up then in a blur he disappeared.

Joseph looked at me chuckling, "which leaves the two of us." He stood up and held out his hand to help me up. I stood up on my own stubbornly and fallowed him out. "It is quite normal for them to do this, let's just say William is…protective and Kelly has always preferred studying something until she can understand it completely."

"And you," I asked gesturing towards him.

"I prefer to supervise them," he said smiling, "I am kind of like the peace keeper; those two can get into some pretty interesting arguments."

"Like…" I asked wanting him to continue. I wanted to know so much, even if it was all pretend.

"Like, what to eat for lunch or most recently what to do about you," he began, "I wanted to give you your own time but William had expected there to be something new about the prophecy and wanted to talk to you right away. Kelly didn't want anything to do with you," he said looking over at me as if checking to make sure he hadn't upset me then looking away as he continued, "we all eventually decided to have me talk to you."

"Do you get sent to do things like that a lot? I mean it seems like you are their leader almost," I asked.

"Sometimes it feels that way to me but we all play our part. I do most of the dealing with other people. Kelly gets kind of...moody and William has never been the most social," he said, "so it is kind of meant for me to appear like the leader so only I have to deal with the talking part. But William is the strongest and if it ends up in a fight I am glad to have him on my side. Kelly is smarter and good at figuring out puzzles. If we have to decode a mystery I am glad to have her helping me," he said. "I am better at healing and talking to people. If it ends up we need help from someone else or if someone is hurt I am sure they will be glad I am on their side." He looked over at me, "Only time will be able to show what strength you have to bring into the group."

We came to a stop; I was surprised to be in front of my house, "thank you." I said politely to him.

Joseph smiled and said, "I will have someone bring you a message if we figure any of this out." And he turned and walked away. I waited till I couldn't see him anymore before turning toward the house. I walked the long way to the backyard so I could see what time it was. It had felt like only minutes but it was already noon meaning I had been out for almost three hours now.

"Grandma," I called, "I am ready for lunch. Should I just make myself something?" I waited and heard her footsteps. My grandmother was beautiful in her own way. Her white hair was almost blonde so other then the shallow wrinkles on her face she didn't look old. She wore her hair up in a ponytail. She was the same size as me and my grandpa who had much deeper wrinkled and who actually was only slightly taller than both of us although from a distance he looked taller.

"Hello Claire, come along, I was just about to make sandwiches," she said hurrying toward the kitchen. I fallowed her.

"I saw a boy had walked you here. Is he a friend of yours from school?" asked my Grandpa taking on the roll of being my father as he tried to not look interested but I could tell he was watching me closely for my reaction so I just shook my head in amusement.

"He is just a friend Grandpa," I said reassuring him trying not to think of what my real dad would have said. He nodded and we all ate ham and cheese sandwiches my grandma had made. Then I walked up to my room when I was done. I sat on my bed and was staring out of the window when something appeared on my desk. I jumped in surprise. I walked over. It was a paper. On the top side it said TO: CLAIRE. I flipped over the paper and saw some writing at the top of the page. It said: Jerold- a man who called himself a sorcerer was locked up in jail by people who were thought to be witches who claimed that he had tried to steal some magic powers from a place called Avalon. After 10 years Jerold was set free and was killed and found with no blood, scratches, and some kind of burns. No one knows what happened to Jerold but his capturers disappeared soon after he was locked in jail and never seen again. I looked over it; Sorcerer, witches, no blood, scratches, and burns were all underlined. At the bottom there were two lines they said, The Protectors was believed to be the group that captured Jerold and they were supposedly the protectors of "Avalon". In a journal found by an explorer of that time said that these four people had magic powers although after that the words are blurred and too hard to understand. I gulped. No words needed to be underlined here. In the middle of the page it said in capital letters; EDGE OF FOREST 5 MINUTES After reading that I got shoes on, pocketed the note, and raced down the hall and out the front door.

I was guessing it took 2 minutes to read the note and 2 minutes to get to the forest which meant I had a minute to catch my breath before they all appeared. I had guessed Joseph would be there first and had hoped I would have time to talk to him but disappointed when I saw no one so I leaned against a nearby tree.

"They are going to be a little late," said a voice. I looked over to see William.

"Why?" I asked.

"Kelly had to go get Joseph," he said rubbing it off as nothing which made me wince. I was still not use to the whole magic power thing. He glared at me. "You need to get over yourself and notice we all have powers and need to use them,"

"I am just getting use to the fact there is magic," I argued. It wasn't my fault I wasn't use to it yet.

"Well then get use to it faster," William said unsympathetically.

"1 minute alone with the new girl and William is already causing problems," said a voice I recognized as Kelly's. "Get my note?" She asked me. I nodded pulling it out of my pocket. She nodded, "so you understand what this is all about."

"Yeah," I said. She smiled slightly but her smile was interrupted by William.

"What is this all about?" he asked.

"Kelly thinks that there use to be 4 more people like us long ago and they imprisoned a man believed to be a sorcerer who was stealing magic from Avalon," said Joseph stepping out of the shadows to stand next to me.

"What is Avalon?" I asked.

"Avalon is a place believed by wiccans to be the home of all magic," said Kelly coming to stand to my left and William's right. I stepped back noticing how close we had become when he had been accusing me of being scared.

"And this helps us how? We still don't know anything about this "war"," William said.

"Because now we know there use to be a group called The Protectors which means we might be decedents of powerful wizards who lived way back when and this war may have happened before and the Wiccan religion may be attached to this," Kelly said.

"Still isn't helping," William said.

Joseph stepped between them and faced Kelly, "what should we do now then."

"I just wanted to update all of you so we are all on the same page. If I can study more about Wiccan rituals then we might be able to do something with the prophecy given to us," Kelly said. Joseph nodded his head but William looked frustrated.

"We have tried that before," he growled, "it didn't work."

"Well now there are four of us," Kelly said leaning around Joseph to look at William, "I don't see you making any suggestions."

"Enough!" I screamed at the two and all three stared at me in surprise, "I have an idea," I said thinking quickly. I really hopped I had an idea then I remembered reading something about wiccan rituals, "I heard about the wiccan rituals, we need to create a circle calling the elements then say a spell. What if the prophecy is actually a spell? I heard that spells are easier to do with more people and it does say four have been chosen." I looked over at William, "if that doesn't work then we will do whatever you think is best."

Joseph nodded in agreement, Kelly looked happy with the idea, and William showed no signs of approval but he didn't disagree which I took as a good sign. Joseph looked up at the sky; it was cloudy and looked like rain. "Tomorrow night," he said. I nodded my approval and something inside of me started to squeeze. I hoped I was right about this.

* * *

**Joeseph: Aren't I awsome?!?**

**Where did Claire go?**

**Joeseph: CLAIRE! *waiting* Nope I can't find her.**

***grumbles* Okay I will go find her when everyone else reviews.**

**^..^*Crystalpath*^..^**


	6. The Spell

**Chapter 5**

**The Spell**

_Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all._

-Dale Carnegie

I spent the rest of the afternoon and half the next morning studying. The weather looked fine. I had gotten a note (by gotten I mean it magically appeared in my hands) that only said 4pm. Which I guessed meant that is when we would do the spell. After that I became nervous and couldn't seem to focus. I got up walking away from my computer and stared out the window. I listed the things I needed; four candles, sage to burn for protection, and we would have to all say the prophecy. We would have to cast the circle, then I would begin with saying the prophecy then they would join in and we would all say it completely two times. Man, I hoped this would work.

The other half of the afternoon had been spent gathering everything and mentally preparing myself. At first every second seemed like an hour but now it felt as if I was on fast-forward. I was beginning to felt dizzy by 3:45 and by 4:00 I was putting all my focus into breathing as I walked towards the forest. I should have set out sooner. By the time I got there Kelly was sitting on a rock with Joseph standing behind her. William wasn't there.

"Will, will be here in a bit. He had to finish what he was doing real quick," said Joseph getting up to walk over to her. His smile was breathtaking; I looked away quickly pulling the stuff out.

"Candles and flowers," Kelly said. I hadn't noticed her coming over. I shook my head, did she have to transport? She pointed at each of them and they disappeared.

"What?" I gasped reaching for them too late. I looked up but Kelly was gone and by the time I turned around she was lighting the second candle. The first one cast shadows as the flame flickered. I nodded my head in approval. I turned around to grab the sage. When I turned around I jumped up at least 3 inches. William was standing right there.

I lift my hand up to my frantic heart, "will you guys stop doing that?"

William ignored me and said, "Do you think it will work?"

"No harm will come from trying," Joseph said.

Kelly appeared back at my side making me jump, again. "The circle has been cast," she said. I looked around to see all four candles lit. She handed me the matches. I nodded and came to the center of the circle and lit the sage.

"I burn this sage for protection," I said as I waited until the sage was just smoking then carefully placed it onto the ground in front of me. Joseph, William, and Kelly had already joined me forming a small circle around the sage. "I will say the prophecy once then you can all join in. Say it how I say it but placing your element where air is. We will say it twice altogether," I said. I looked at each of them. Joseph looked kind, Kelly seemed to be focusing on every word I said, and William's expression was unreadable. Something between hope, boredom, and something else, I was unable to see what the third one was and gave up right away looking past them and into the forest behind Kelly (who stood in front of me), and began.

As I began I seemed to lose myself in the prophecy. The words swarmed like smoke in the circle. When I came to the end I could almost feel magic boiling inside of me. I laughed silently at myself, only two days ago I would think I was crazy. I was surprised how easily I started to believe in magic. But I had seen it. Noticing I had paused and the others were waiting for me to begin I started again. They joined with me. The first and second time we said it seemed to mix, no quiet lines separated it until I heard leaves rustle behind me. I turned my head.

A woman stood only about a yard behind me. "NO!" she screamed. A man came out to stand behind her. His eyes glowed red making me freeze.

"THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING!" screamed the first women. A girl that looked only about one or two years older than me stepped out. Her eyes glowed yellow. Her lips pulled up in a growl. My breath caught in my throat but I forced myself to look back at the others who were all staring in surprise. If I hadn't also been surprised I would have laughed at how wide William's eyes were but I continued. I lifted my voice high snapping them out of it and they quickly joined in.

"No, stop it," said a guy voice behind me. Kelly gasped which made me automatically look at her and fallow her gaze behind me. The girl with the yellow eyes had turned into a wolf and she was jumping at us. But for some reason she couldn't seem to get us. It took me a second to realize it was the circle. I stared in surprise but snapped my head around. We didn't have much time until one of the people found a way to get to us and I didn't like the look of the man with red eyes. I started again and again the others joined me. And just as we were about to finish a screech sounded behind me and I hopped around to face whatever had screeched instinctively.

"STOP, let us talk for a second," said the first women.

"Do you have a clue what you are doing?" said the guy with red eyes. The women glanced at him angrily. "You will lose your powers if you do this. You will cause pain and possible death," she said her voice sweet but demanding.

"Don't listen to her," William hissed grabbing my shoulder but I shook him off and continued to stare at the lady.

"I am Jane, leader of the group called The Openers. This is Thorn, my deputy," she said waving to the man at her side, "and Annie one of the many members of the group," she said waving to the brown wolf.

"What does your group do?" asked Kelly from behind me.

"Good question young mage," said Jane, her voice seemed to bubble over like poison threatening to hypnotize me. "We are working to bring beauty back to the Earth," she said smiling too sweetly.

"How so?" I asked still not blinded by her poisonous voice.

"We wish to open the gates of Avalon. We have been doing tests on the four element stones," said Thorn. I now froze with shock. Two voices argued in my head. The prophecy says the closed gate of Avalon brings unknown dangers. Does that mean the gates should be opened? I shook my head turning around I started up again starting from the beginning of the prophecy. Doing the spell felt correct. The others seemed scared at first but when I restarted the prophecy they started up. By the end of it I heard Jane screaming at Annie and Thorn to find a way to open the shield. I started saying the prophecy again for the last time. My heart quickened as I finished it off. I didn't want to cause Kelly, William, or Joseph to lose their powers. But the magic was swirling around again in time of my voice. I felt safe. I was coming to the final words when I felt air swirling around me and as I began to say the last words my voice cut off in a screech as I felt something scrape into my legs. But the weight was instantly gone replace by the feeling that I was falling.

"Oof," I gasped as I fell onto the ground. I looked up expecting to see that I had been thrown or was still under attack. But instead I saw I was alone in a field surrounded by grass that had to be about 5 inches taller than me. Where was I?

* * *

**William: You don't talk about how we look very much in your story.**

**Kelly: Yeah, and you made us look according to our element.**

**Joeseph: *looks at all of them* Hmm...I never noticed that.**

**LOL Yeah, Claire is blond with pale skin and light blueish grey eyes, Joeseph is pale with nice black hair and dark blue eyes, Kelly is a dark tan with brown hair and green eyes, and William is a light tan with redish hair and golden brown eyes.**

**William: You should talk about that more in your story and tlak more about me.**

**Don't worry you will have a big part in the story soon William. Anyways, please review.**

**All of the charecters (except for the dissapearing Claire): Please!**

**^..^*Crystalpath*^..^**


	7. Valdamore

**Chapter 6**

**Valdamor**

_As I began to discover my own truth and endeavored to possess it with clarity, I became more and more alienated from that which my companions held, or professed to hold._

-Juan Goytisolo

For a couple minutes I just sat there startled. It wasn't until I heard footsteps that I jumped up. I stood there too scared to move but staring at where I thought I hear the footsteps. They came again but heading towards me. As the footsteps came to the stop at of the long grass and next to my clearing, I started stepping back getting faster with every step. Then William stepped out.

"William," I said relieved. He nodded at me then looked around.

"Do you have any clue of where we are?" He said coming over to stand next to me. I shook my head expecting him to answer but he just looked around. He muttered to himself then he looked around and back at me then back towards the way he came, clearly deciding if he should go find the others, leaving me the air mage who currently had no clue what her power was defenseless or stay with me. He looked like he was about to say something when we heard footsteps behind us. I quickly turned around and out of the corner I saw William do the same but he got into a position to run if he had to. I gulped; would he really just run away like that leaving me here?

"Relax, it is just me," Joseph said stepping out.

"Good then we are all here," said another voice making me jump so high I swear I could see over the grass.

"Would you PLEASE stop doing that?!?" I yelled.

Joseph laughed and I glared at him, "Don't take it offensively but another jump like that and you will be able to just fly back home." I tried to keep a serious face but failed and smiled giggling slightly before pulling back my serious face as I remembered the situation we were in.

"Do you have any clue where we are?" William asked Kelly.

"You are in the Portal field, in the Western kingdom, in Voldamor," said a voice that was again behind me. And I can truthfully say that this time I wasn't the only one that jumped. It was a woman with dark brown hair and light green eyes. She wore a beautiful silk dress and her hair was up in a bun. "What is your name, kind, rank, and where are you from?" She asked.

Joseph automatically stepped up, like he had said before, he did most of the talking when it came to dealing with other people. "I am sorry, I don't know what you mean," said Joseph.

The lady was mumbling something then Kelly stepped up, "I am Kelly, I am an Earth mage with the power of transportation and I believe I am descendent of The Protectors." I couldn't see Joseph's face but I saw William's. He was bewildered, surprised, and angry. I felt the same way. Why did Kelly just blurt that out to a total stranger?

The lady seemed pleased though. She gracefully walked up to them. Then she smiled and said, "I am Queen Rosalie. We have been waiting for your arrival. Come right this way," She said gesturing for them to fallow her. And she personally didn't want to fallow this lady, even if she was a queen. Joseph and William seemed to feel the same way but Kelly walked off without them, oblivious to their fear. At first they just stood there but then Joseph went after Kelly and William nodded at me then in a blur he appeared next to Joseph. I hurried to catch up not wanting to be left alone.

They didn't have to walk far to get to another clearing. And in the edge of the clearing there was a castle. I suddenly wondered if I was dreaming. It was defiantly possible; maybe I had even dreamt of my dad's death or maybe just of my mom going crazy. I would just be happy if I had just never walked up and went to that first day of school. Whenever I had fallen asleep it didn't matter, this was just too crazy. Or perhaps I was dead, did you go somewhere like this when you were dead? Not that I had thought about suicide but everyone gets close to almost killing themselves every once in a while, right? Maybe I just ate something I was allergic too…nah with my luck I probably just fell down some stairs and killed myself by bumping my head too hard.

"Welcome to my home," said Queen Rosalie, "we will have a meeting the second the other queens and kings get here. You did invite them, right?" she asked.

"We haven't seen any royalty other then yourself," it was Joseph that spoke this time. The queen was staring at me though as if she had expected me to be the one to speak. I tried to ignore it, I was being too paranoid. The queen eyed him then said, "Farewell, I will have one of my messengers call to them," She turned, "I'll be right back." I took the moment of silence to study the room I was in. It was just a big hallway. Behind me was the large wooden front doors with golden door knobs and the hallway had red carpet. The walls were a yellow and either side there were picture of what I guessed where past Queens and Kings. It was all what I knew I would be able to makeup in a dream. Then I turned to see that Kelly was being glared at.

"Why did you just tell her about yourself like that? I mean that was seriously out of character for you," Joseph said when William opened his mouth. I had to admit that was kind of mean but from what I had seen so far it was for the best, William would probably has started screaming at her and the Queen would be back soon.

"I don't know," Kelly said and she actually sounded sad and confused. Joseph stared at her for a long moment then turned away as the queen came in.

He looked like he was going to accuse her of putting a spell on Kelly so I stepped in before he could, "well we should probably all introduce ourselves. I am Claire, I am an air mage and I believe I have the power of telekinesis but I only learned of my powers just recently," I said. Then I waved towards William, "this is William he is a fire mage with the power of speed," then I turned towards Joseph, "and Joseph, he is a water mage with the power of healing." Then I turned back to her smiling.

"Like I said I am Queen Rosalie, queen of the Western Kingdom. I hope you don't mind me asking but how did you get here?" she asked.

The question was directed at me but Joseph answered it, "We all received a prophecy in a dream and used it as a spell. We didn't expect it to bring us here so we just need to get home now."

"Oh don't be ridiculous, please stay. And can you tell me what the prophecy is?" asked the queen, who only glanced at Joseph. Again she seemed to be asking me the question. So I recited the now well memorized prophecy then explained how the air would be removed and each one of us was told it with our element. Then once I was done Joseph joined in telling her about our discovery that the prophecies were different and what Kelly had figured out so far about Jerold and The Protectors.

After we were done it was silent. The Queen looked surprised then she started muttering something under her breath. That is when Joseph told her about the people that had tried to stop us from completing the spell. Then it was quiet again but this time the queen was shocked into silence. And she looked at me desperately, "Please tell me you know someone in your family who is also a mage, or someone on Earth who is a mage," I shook my head. No one that I knew of was a mage. She looked at Kelly, Joseph, and William and in turn they all shook their head no. The queen fell to her knees crying, "Then this is worst then anyone could ever have imagined. Oh Audra, I hope you see what your actions have caused!"

I stood there surprised. We all looked at each other, uncertain as to what we should do now, as Queen Rosalie got up. For a second she stared at us then she turned heading back deeper into the castle telling someone who was around the corner and out of sight to show us to our rooms. Then a young looking girl with light blonde hair and graying blue eyes came around the corner heading towards us after bowing to the queen and saying a "yes, your majesty." Then she came to us. She bowed then took my hand leading me towards the door. She had to be only about 10. William walked beside me and Joseph and Kelly walked behind me creating a small square as we walked.

The girl had quietly led us to a small cottage looking house that had four rooms, a kitchen, and a living room. Outside it looked as if there had once been a garden but it was now just a large patch of dirt. Once we had gotten inside the girl left without saying a word leaving us there. Now we were all exploring the rooms. We were all unsure of what to do. Kelly seemed to be still getting over the fact she had basically blurted out everything to the queen without getting to know anything about her first. Joseph seemed weirdly quiet, I didn't quite understand why. William seemed to be just kind of mad.

"Okay enough of this!" William yelled.

"What?" Kelly said.

"Enough walking around doing nothing, we have to get home. You should be in the library," he turned towards Joseph, "You should be talking to the Queen," and then he turned to me, "and you should be trying to figure out all of this magic stuff so you don't misuse your powers." Kelly stared at him then started slowly nodded.

"I should actually see if I can transport back home. If I can I will come back and pick-up everyone," Kelly said disappearing.

"Kelly, you shouldn't-" Joseph began, but he was too late she was gone. I looked at her spot worriedly. Then after a moment he said, "I will wait for her to come back, if we aren't even on Earth she probably can't get that far."

"Okay, I am going to go spy then," William said. I must have looked as confused as I felt because he said, "I can get in and out of the castle without anyone seeing me. I will just go in long enough to figure out what is going on." Then he was gone too. I stared at where he had been I really hoped he didn't end up getting caught. I knew we could probably escape if someone came at us but I didn't want to upset a queen in the first hour of me being somewhere. Actually I didn't know if it was still my first hour. I looked over at Joseph.

"What time is it?" I asked. He glanced at his watch, and then his eyes flew open. He shook his arm with the watch on it then tapped the glass.

"It is the same time as it was when we…transported here," Joseph said looking at the watch again, "thing's batteries are probably just dead."

"No, time is off here. One day here is the same as one second on Earth," said a voice. This time it was luckily not behind me but by the door that William had apparently been in too big of a hurry to close. This was good because I had, had enough weird voices behind me today to last a lifetime. It wasn't the queen but it looked enough like her to be her son. He was no older than me, which explained why he hadn't taken her position as ruler; a sixteen year old king wasn't such a good idea.

"Oh so kind of like Narnia," I said. Only a moment to late I noticed my mistake and blushed, they probably didn't have that book here. "Narnia is just a place in a book," I explained still blushing. The guy brushed it off with a shake of his hand, it didn't matter.

"So I am Charles, oldest son of Jennifer, the queen of the south. I am here to escort you to the castle," said the prince. I nodded then jumped as a voice sounded beside me. Again it was luckily not behind me.

"Okay, but can we wait a second for Kelly who is in the bathroom," said William just a little bit louder than necessary.

"Very well," said the prince bowing his head to William who he didn't seem to notice just appeared or didn't care. He turned back to me, "I am sorry but I don't think I know all of your names yet."

"I am Claire," I said, "I am the air mage."

"Ah yes, that is what I though. The air mage is always the prettiest," He said kindly making me giggle. He lifted my hand and kissed it, "It is nice to meet you Claire." William twitched beside me pushing me slightly and I pulled my hand from Prince Charles hand and waved it towards William, "this is William, he is the fire mage." Then I swept my hand over towards Joseph who was standing glancing at the bathroom occasionally, waiting for Kelly, "this is Joseph the water mage." Then Kelly came out of the bathroom, "and that would be Kelly. Let's go."

The Prince nodded his gaze still on me which was starting to make me feel uncomfortable. But he turned without saying anything and led the way out of the house. I fell back to talk to the others.

"I couldn't find anything," Kelly was explaining, "it must be too far away."

"Yeah, I had guessed that," Joseph said turning his gaze away from Kelly, who he was walking closely next to, and onto William.

"I didn't hear much, I was listening to the Queen welcome the other royalty when I heard them say they had sent Prince Charles to get you," He said his gaze staying straight on the path. He walked on my left side, the opposite side of Joseph and Kelly.

"Claire," called Charles. I looked up at him he was standing next to a women who looked like his mother and possibly Queen Rosalie's sister, which explained Charles resemblance to the queen, "come meet my mother."

I reluctantly came forward and bowed slightly to the queen. She smiled, "I am guessing you are Claire, the air mage. I wish I could say I have heard a lot about you but I haven't."

I smiled, "and you are Queen Jennifer, queen of the south. Right?" I said.

"Yes, very good," she smiled; her smile seemed to cover her whole face. Her dark black hair swirled around her face as she turned her head, glancing over at Charles as if trying to direct my attention over to him but I felt his gaze on me and didn't want to look over at him.

"The Protectors are here," I heard a guys voice say from over by the castle entrance, saving me from my small awkward moment.

A man stepped out heading towards us followed closely by a small woman, a younger looking man, and Queen Rosalie. They then all turned and headed towards what looked like a garden surrounded by solid, tall fences.

"Come along," said Prince Charles who turned. I was able to look at him when his back was turned. His face had been handsome, the perfect face for a prince. He wore a long dark blue robe that matched the queen's very elegant blue dress. He was about half a foot taller than me and Jennifer was only slightly smaller than him.

"Wow," William gasped. My heart stopped slightly, I hadn't noticed him walk up next to me but his gasp brought me to where we were. We were in the garden, and it was beautiful beyond words could describe.

The man who had been in the entrance of the castle had stopped and turned towards me, as soon as Kelly (who had been in the back of the group) came in he called "Now, let the meeting begin!"

* * *

**Prince Charles: You make me sound wierd. **

**I know MOL**

**William: Claire is startled too easily**

**Claire: Hey!**

**CLAIRE!!!!!!!!!!!! Where were you?**

**Claire: In Valdamore.**

**But you just found Valdamore...oh well. Please review.**

**Claire: maybe I just have magic powers!**

**You do, but you don't know how to use them.**

**Claire: true...**

**^..^*Crystalpath*^..^**

**William: You should really get that copyrighted or something.**

**LOL Agreed! It is a nice signature isn't it.**

**William: Yes it is.**


	8. Bad Timing

**Chapter 7**

**Bad Timing**

_Life is about timing. _

–Carl Lewis

First we all introduced ourselves. The guy in front was apparently king of the east. His name was Fredward and the small women, wearing a light brown dress that didn't look as elegant as the other Queens was his wife, Jessica. She sounded nice. The King wore a normal suit that wasn't exactly as fancy as Charles's outfit but it fit modern times better than some of the other outfits.

The younger looking man was King Zuki IV. He was king of the north and seemed to be the quietest of all of them. He wore thicker clothes and explained to us that he had just come from the snow.

Now the meeting had actually started and Queen Rosalie was going over everything that we had told her. Charles was staring at me, making me try harder to hide behind the already uncomfortable William. His mother however was totally absorbed into what Queen Rosalie was saying. King Zuki, King Fredward, and Queen Jessica were all shocked into silence already. Queen Jessica practically fainted when she heard that we hadn't heard of any mages on Earth. Once Queen Rosalie was done King Zuki spoke up, "isn't it better without magic on Earth? If we stop this group called The Openers then maybe humans will actually just be happy pretending magic didn't even exist."

What he said made since but King Fredward didn't look so sure he said, "of course not, Earth should have magic, the gates of Avalon should have been kept open. Audra should have known better."

"Who is Audra?" asked Kelly but everyone's gaze shot to me. Queen Jessica basically fainted, again.

"She is the last air mage," Queen Rosalie said.

"But why is she so important?" Joseph asked.

They still all looked at me, "Don't you know?" asked Prince Charles. I shook my head.

"Air mages are always the leader. It was Audra who closed the gates of Avalon. Don't they teach history on Earth?" answered Queen Jennifer.

"Yes, just not magic history," hissed Kelly who I could now easily imagine with smoke coming out of her ears. Charles snorted and looked away from us as if not knowing about magic made us less important. This was fine by me. What was bothering me and keeping me quiet was that if I was the air mage did that mean I was suddenly suppose to be leader. I didn't want to be; I was the last to the group and still didn't know how to use my powers, if I even had anything. I remembered the book levitating in class but had that really been me? Maybe the prophecy was just given to the wrong person. I took a deep breath, I was panicking myself. I would figure everything out eventually.

The rest of the meeting was just the Kings and Queens talking between each other. They had finally decided just to deal with The Openers then, after getting as much information about Earth as possible from us and from a couple of spies they decided to send there. The only problem? The portal to Earth appeared randomly and doing the spell here would have a totally different effect due to the amount of magic still contained here. Kelly had luckily gone to the library the first second possible and sent us back her notes. Apparently here there were creatures like vampires, werewolves, sorcerers, witches, mermaids, necromancers, and shaman. She said that when the gates of Avalon closed stopping large flows of magic The Protectors created some kind of shield keeping all magic inside (which explained why Kelly couldn't go out if she just turned into a big mist of magic then traveled at the speed of light to her next destination). The little magic on Earth made it so that the magical creatures had less magic and magic plants all died and became less beautiful. Such as the Vampires here couldn't handle being within three yards of a complete human who had no magic what-so-ever where on Earth vampires could live with just drinking animal blood.

Joseph was with her now (he didn't like being here so he seemed to like the thought of having a buddy system, which meant he had basically ordered William to stay with me). William had been bored out of his mind. So after 5 minutes of pacing and exploring the house some more he decided we should go check the portal field. He ran to tell Kelly so she would know to send notes to us and not the house. Then he came back and was now leading me to Portal field. I was jogging to keep up with him but he still groaned at how slow I was going. I could tell he wanted to run.

After he sighed I snapped at him, "then why don't you like pick me up and run."

He thought for a second then said, "Your body may not be able to take the force. When I run I have to push against gravity and my skin seems to be built to survive the force."

"Hmm," I said. That seemed reasonable. "How did you figure that out?"

"Kelly told me," he admitted. I nodded and we continued at my top walking speed toward Portal field. It felt like it was further away this time. Once we finally got there I was out of breathe and collapsed on to the ground as William started inspecting the field.

"It doesn't look like anything," I said looking around the field. There was nothing there. Of course I didn't know what a portal looked like so one could be there; I might just not see it.

"Well get up and help me," William said feeling around in the air as if feel an invisible tree. I felt around. Then I heard a loud rush sound. "What is that sound?" William said. I turned my head to listen. I stepped closer to him getting nervous but my foot went through the ground and it started getting sucked down. I tried pulling it out but then it just got sucked harder.

"Help!" I screamed. As my other leg slipped into the ground and I reached out desperately. William luckily caught me. He tried pulling but like before I got sucked harder. He still tried pulling again, harder this time. But then we were both falling into the ground. I landed on the ground, softer then I had been afraid of but still kind of hard. I looked around, now where were we? Then I saw it was the forest. It seems to have grown since we had last been there and it was darker, I then realized it was about the same time it had been when we left. The forest didn't feel the same but I hadn't been there long, for all I knew I could have been standing in this very spot only a couple minutes ago.

"We are home!" I said happily.

"No, something is wrong." William said. He was standing up. I looked up at him. Then fallowed his eyes to see that where my house should have been was more forest. What happened?

* * *

**Joseph: *gasp* You used the Twilight vampires.**

**No, I just like the idea of vampires not having to eat people.**

**Joeseph: Okay I have to admit it is a good idea. But you still read to much Twilight. **

**Claire: And Darkest Powers, how many times have you reread thos books?**

**To many times but that not the point. Oh and I do not own the Twilight series or the idea about the vampires drinking blood of animals instead of humans. Or Edward no matter how much I wish I did. LOL**

**^..^*Crystalpath*^..^ **


	9. Time

**Chapter 8**

**Time**

The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once.

–Albert Einstein

I stood up slowly but I still felt dizzy. I held my head with one of my hands and gestured towards where my house was suppose to be, "what happened. It isn't like my house just got up and walked away."

"I don't know," William said, "I want to go check." He glanced over at me.

"I think I will stay here," I said. He nodded then he was gone. I sat back down. I still was trying to convince myself this was all happening. I looked up at the sky. At least the sky was still blue. I hadn't noticed but in the other world it had been day, here it was actually the same time it was when we left. I sat there for a second but looking back up the sky I decided I should find somewhere to sleep, guessing William wouldn't. I got up; of course stumbling in the dark wouldn't be the best idea. But I continue stubbornly falling down a couple times. I am sure I would regret it later; I was still wearing my blue jean shorts so my knees would be scratched up. I was heading towards where I though the tree cave would be. I stopped when I noticed how foolish I was being. The cave may not even be there. But I did need to get somewhere safe, next to a tree would be good enough. I stepped sideways and tripped.

This time a pair of hand grabbed me and helped me up, "I couldn't find anything." It was William.

I brushed myself off, "can you see anything?" I asked.

"Yeah," he was quiet for a second. I thought about just letting it go and asking about the tree cave but he said, "My mom doesn't have electricity, after awhile you get use to being in the dark." He stepped back. I could just barely see his outline. I was suddenly glad of the white t-shirt he was wearing.

"We need shelter," I said. I glanced up at the sky. My bad luck seemed to be spreading, not only was there only a crescent moon but there was also clouds, rain clouds. Now my eyes were slowly adjusting.

"It takes about 15 minutes for your eyes to adjust, I am guessing it has been about 10 so you will be able to see soon," William said over his shoulder as I fallowed behind him trying to not fall down. I still did fall down though, bumping into him. But he didn't seem to care or notice. The silence was annoying but not awkward. Of course I was mumbling apologies and tripping so much it wasn't exactly silent but the fact we weren't having a conversation didn't feel weird like it usually did.

Finally we came to a tree that grew low to the ground. It wasn't the tree cave but that could be a good thing, if something did try to attack us there wasn't just one exit, as I had already experienced. I fell into it but tried to cover up my fall by pretending to just be gathering leafs into a bed. Once again William ignored me and sat down, leaning against the trunk of the tree. I lay down on my leaf bed, although no matter what it would still be a cold spring night. After a couple moments I said, "You can't fall asleep sitting up."

"That would be the point," William said.

"You need to sleep too," I pointed out as I turned to look at him.

"Yeah," William said looking at me. Out gazes caught and held but I looked away. "We are in a new place, someone has to keep watch." I knew he was right but for some reason I still didn't want it to be that way. I wanted to yell at him that we were home, or that this was just a dream (I still didn't believe I was awake, although this was getting weirder by the second) but I knew that if this was real (which I doubted) we would have to be careful. "I will wake you up if I start to get too tired to focus," William said. I sighed silently, that probably meant he wouldn't wake me up. But I was getting too tired to argue. So I let my eye lids close but between shivering and my eyes shooting open at every crack of a twig I was nowhere near falling asleep when William scooted closer slightly touching and for some reason I felt instantly warm. I glanced up at him but he was looking off into the forest then thinking back I remembered Joseph saying something about William having the element of fire. So now warm I closed my eyes more calmly. His touch reassured me I wasn't alone which kept me calm making sleep drift over me effortlessly.

By the time I woke up William had already fallen asleep beside me, his back to mine. I sat up, careful to not awaken him; I didn't know how late he had gotten to sleep. I silently yelled at him for not waking me up but I guessed it only made since for the guy who actually knew how to control his powers to be the one on guard duty.

I crawled out of under the tree and looked around. The sun had just risen.

"I would guess it is about 8am," said a voice I now knew as William's. I looked over at him. He had fallowed me out of under the tree and now was standing up stretching as he glanced up at the sky.

"Where did you come from?" I asked him, "I thought you were asleep."

"I was, but only slightly," William said still looking at the sky. Then he looked down studying the forest, "I suggest we go back towards where the road should be. Do you think we could have time traveled?"

"What?" I asked.

"You know, like went back in time. Everything is too close to being in the same spots. The river is still there, but bigger, and there is a clearing where the houses should be."

I nodded, he would be able to recognize the forest better than me so it could be possible, "well seeing as how in just 24 hours I have seen a girl turn into a wolf, a guy run super fast, a girl transport, notes appear out of nowhere, a real castle, and a whole new magical world that no human has ever seen before, I would believe just about anything right now."

He snorted, which I took as a rude comment mixed with a laugh then said, "nothing to do but see if we could find the road, then." Then he started walking forward leaving me with nothing to do but fallow behind him.

He seemed frustrated by my slowness again but I ignore his annoyed sighs and continued walking taking in all of the scenery. It was beautiful, almost too beautiful. It was like Valdamor, beautiful beyond words. The grass seemed to sparkle, the way it did when the sun shines on it after it rains. The moss that grey up trees and around rocks was softer then feathers, I felt it with my hands as I passed through the forest. The trees themselves were even beautiful and thick, they covered the sky blocking it from view and yet the sun shone through. I laughed letting the feeling of joy soak through me as a group of birds flew up from where they were eating around us.

William eyed me as if I had gone crazy but I really didn't care. I hadn't felt this happy for a long time, I spun letting joy float through me until I felt William grab me. I pulled from his grab but he growled something I was unable to make out at me so I stopped fallowing his gaze. I yelped as I saw rocks, dirt, and plants all levitating.

"Am I doing that," I whispered.

"No, it is a ghost," William snapped at me releasing me, "Yes you are doing it, now stop."

"How?"

For once William said nothing, the one time I needed him to say something. Where was Joseph when I needed him?

"How?" I repeated looking back at William.

"I-I don't know," he said. That made since, his power was running, something that came naturally. He hadn't been with Joseph and Kelly when their powers first came so he wouldn't know what to do when something didn't come naturally. So I did the first thing that came to mind, "I closed my eyes focusing on an image of everything dropping back to the ground. I raised my hands letting an odd feeling rush through my arms. I felt…powerful, strong. Then with all my concentration on an image of the forest the way it was before I brought my hands down.

"Wow," William said. I opened my eyes; everything was on the ground exactly it was before. And I mean exactly, no dirt was turned up, no rocks placed the wrong way.

"Now to figure out how I did that," I said. I closed my eyes about to try again but William nudged me making my eyes open again.

"Not now, we gotta keep going we're almost-" he started.

"Actually you are already there," a voice said behind me (again). I turned and there stood a girl about my age. She had light brown hair that curled nicely around her face and kind green eyes. She was tall with long legs and wasn't beautiful but cute enough. She smiled.

The atmosphere seemed to change I stared at her confused, I tried to remember the name of the past air mage, "Audra?"

"What? No, I am not a Protector," said the girl, "I am powerful but not that powerful, my name is Annabelle. I was told travelers were coming through here and was sent to investigate." She bowed her head slightly. "I didn't know the travelers were Protectors though, or else I may have actually sent Audra."

So William was right, we had time traveled but then I remembered something, "How did you know we were Protectors?"

She laughed, "Don't be silly, I can tell by how you look. You both match a specific element. You," she nodded her head at me, "are wind. And you," she nodded her head at William, "are heat."

"You mean air and fire," said a voice behind her. Out stepped a girl that had black hair and blue eyes. Her hair was straight and short although it curved at the bottom.

Annabelle sighed, "you had to correct me, didn't you Evelyn." Evelyn just stared at her. I immediately kind of felt uncomfortable but that feeling disappeared and Evelyn smiled only making her seem to glare harder at Annabelle. Annabelle just laughed and turned away from her. Evelyn smiled happily behind Annabelle's back then crossed her arms as if frustrated.

Annabelle opened her mouth to say something but then a yell cut her off, "Evelyn!" Said a voice then a blurred shape twirled around Evelyn and stopped by Annabelle where a girl with long dark brown hair and green eyes appeared hugging Annabelle. She was slightly smaller than Evelyn but looked about the same age, which I would estimate to be about 10. She let go of Annabelle looking up at her.

"Rosalia, Evelyn, these are the travelers I was sent to help," she gestured for us to give our names.

"My name is Claire," I said.

Annabelle turned towards William, "William," he said. Not exactly formal but it was better than him just ignoring her and saying we had to go, which is what I expected.

"Nice to meet you both," Annabelle said. I noticed the younger girls behind her were whispering quietly but she continued, ignoring them, "I will help direct you towards wherever you would like to go." She cleared her throat, glaring at Rosalia when she started talking loudly. Rosalia made her eyes big and Annabelle laugh. "Why don't you go tell James I got everything taken care of before he comes after me expecting the world to be ready to explode?" Rosalia nodded and turned into a blur as she darted away. Annabelle turned towards the other girl just looked at her. Evelyn smiled and stepped back disappearing silently into the undergrowth.

"Sorry about that," Annabelle said smiling sweetly gesturing for us to answer her unasked question as to where we would like to go.

I could guess William wasn't going to say anything so I answered, "actually is there any portal fields or something here."

Annabelle looked confused, "of course but it is heavily guarded. You can't go there unless Audra approves of it."

That is when I got nervous but immediately the feeling faded away, "it is okay I can still help you go there and Audra is usually quite nice if it is an emergency."

I got the feeling Annabelle wanted to know why but was nice enough to not ask. I was about to tell her but William interrupted, "How are you doing that?" At first I thought he was talking to me. I glanced around worried about more floating objects but then out of the corner of my eyes I saw he was looking at Annabelle.

She smiled, "I am not a normal witch, neither are the girls you saw. We are mages like you but not as strong. I am air and make a good healer but I am best at controlling and feeling emotions. Evelyn can read minds and is one of the best warriors I have ever seen, although her element would surprise you. She is water. Rosalia, as you could see has speed and can control fire."

"Like William," I blurted out. Annabelle laughed; I blushed slightly, embarrassed by my big mouth.

"In a way," she looked at William, "You are fire?" He just nodded. She smiled. "So they are alike in the way they have the same powers but trust me, they are complete opposites." I couldn't help but laugh. "So to the portal fields we go. I won't bring you completely there. Actually I will let James lead you for awhile. I just am the first to greet people."

That made since. If she could control emotions she can help calm down people for long enough for them to understand where they were or for long enough for them to tell her who they were. I looked at her; she didn't look like she could fight if someone trying to invade, where ever this was, came along. Is that why the other girls had been there?

"You are on Earth, on the West lands. Don't misjudge Annabelle. She is stronger then she looks." I jumped as Evelyn spoke from beside me.

Annabelle spun to face us while she walked backwards. She laughed, "Thank you Evelyn but you gotta stop startling them." She turned back around as she leaped, amazing gracefully over a rock and spun back to face us again, "almost there." Then she turned back around continuing to walk with her arms swinging lightly at her side. I still couldn't imagine her fighting…

"She can control more than just emotional feelings," Evelyn said again. I nodded, for a brief moment not understanding. But then I got it. She could make someone feel physical pain, which meant she wouldn't be actually fighting, well other then in her mind. Is that how magic worked, all in your mind? I expected Evelyn to answer but when I looked over she was gone.

"And here we are," Annabelle said as we stepped out onto a dirt path.

* * *

**Well it has been a long week, but I got this chapter done. I will hopefully have the next one on here byt the 24th of next month.**

**Annabelle: YAY!**

**Claire: Annabelle is going to be kind of annoying, is she another main charecter.**

**Annabelle: I have a bunch of things to do, I am only bringing you to the castle.**

***Claire looks over at me***

**What she said.**

**William: Annabelle is kinda entertaining though. She remind me of sombody. Hmmm.....**

**LOL Okay please review everyone. More coming soon, I promise.**


	10. Stuck XD Sorry about the mix up

**Chapter 10**

**Stuck**

"A mistake is to commit a misunderstanding."  
**-**Bob Dylan

James had agreed with me but reassured me he was a _nice _vampire. But the red eyes still made me stay as close to William as possible. We still had to walk, about a mile. Nobody but the protectors and the royalty themselves were allowed to transport into the castle grounds without permission. Seeing as how William and I were not really Protectors and shouldn't be there at all (Annabelle told us about how protectors weren't suppose to be born until the others retired, which meant until they got too old to fight and run around all day and were ready to train a protector once they are born. Protectors were apparently always come from the same family. Which meant Audra was probably my great, great, great, don't know how many greats, aunt).

When we got close to the castle Annabelle explained that she couldn't stay here, she had to go home (lucky her, I wish I could just turn around go home) and explained she would go talk to one of the guards she knew were a transporter.

This castle wasn't as grand as the one in Valdamor but it was pretty. It didn't look old, it looked magical. It wasn't big like you would expect, it was like a large house with fancy silver walls and dark black roof. Flowers grew up the walls and there was a large garden that seemed to stretch completely around the house. There was a slight breeze that tossed my hair playfully. I smiled and let the smell of the garden calm me as if welcoming me. But that feeling immediately disappeared as an angry looking man with dark tan skin and red hair came out. He reminded me of William but he was stronger and taller with darker skin and his eyes were a bright yellow.

He stopped when he saw us and by stop I mean he completely froze. "Audra!" he screamed, his angry look now gone with a look of pure surprise. A lady came out, she looked like me, and same pale skin, light blond hair, light blue eyes, although she was taller, older. I guessed she was Audra.

I stepped forward, "we need your help."

Audra's first reaction was to call Herman, which was apparently the man's name, back and they had an argument between themselves before he called over a women that had black hair and pale skin, like Joseph. She came and talked calmly to them. Finally they seemed to come to an agreement. Audra came over to us as the other two went to join a man that looked a bit like Kelly in guy form.

"Come this way," she said gesturing for us to fallow her. When William tried to fallow, Audra stopped him. "Nope, only her for now." William opened his mouth as if to argue but I shook my head, no use we needed her help and if this is how we would get it then that was fine with me.

William, to my surprise stayed. I felt his gaze on me as I walked away with Audra. She turned into the surrounding garden and led me to two benches. She sat on one and gestured to sit on the one across from her. Immediately the obvious questions came.

"Who are you, what are you doing here, and why are you here. The Protectors are alive and well, no more should be here," Audra said.

"I am Claire, I am an air mage but don't know what my powers are. I come from the future and at my time there haven't been any Protectors for a very long time. I just need to get a portal back to where I came from," I replied.

That was enough to keep Audra quiet for a few moments. Then finally she started again, "so, I am guessing you are here to stop me from closing the Gate of Avalon." She got up gesturing for me to fallow.

"How far in the future are you in your time?" She didn't look at me as she asked so I was unable to understand what she meant by this question.

"I am from the year 2010. I don't exactly how far into the future that is…" I said

"This is the year 1210," she said still not looking at me.

"So, about 800 years?"

"Yes, and how is the world. Is everything about the same?"

"There is no magic on Earth. I went to a place called Valdamor and it looked kind of the same as here. There is magic there."

"And there have been no Protectors? Hmm, makes sense if there is no Avalon to protect. But there should be magic on Earth. Where did it go? Why isn't it there anymore? What happened to me?" She stopped talking and shook her head sadly. I felt bad; I wished I wasn't the one that had to tell her that what she was doing was going to destroy her home.

"I really need to get back there was a prophecy…"

"A PROPHECY?" She said as I noticed a moment to late I shouldn't have said that. "What did it say? Did it bring you here? Did it say anything about the Gates of Avalon?"

"Calm down, Audra you are going to give the child a heart attack," said the guy I had seen earlier, the one who looked a bit like Kelly. Slightly tan, green eyes, dark brown hair. He was about the same size as Audra. He gestured for me to go ahead.

"The Prophecy said; Gates of Avalon, closed tightly for so long, brings unknown dangers. Four have been chosen, the war of magic begins now, may air light your path. The element changes according to the element of the person receiving the prophecy. The other three protectors got their prophecies first and theirs said the war starts soon. I got mine last and I am sure it said the war was now, not soon."

Audra and the man didn't move, they barely breathed.

"What?" I said.

"This is something I was sent just recently," Audra hissed. "The gates of Avalon shall be closed! Now leave!" She shouted. Power filled her voice making me back up. She turned away from me facing the man and I turned and fled back the way I came.

I headed towards where I thought William was but he wasn't there, "William!" I looked around, twisting to get a view from all sides. He wasn't there. Oh great, now I was alone, angry , and had super powered mages thinking I was some kind of liar here to keep the gates of Avalon open, perfect, just perfect.

"William!" I shouted again. Why wouldn't he come out?

"Where is Audra," growled a voice. I turned to see the angry man, Herman, now angry again with the woman fallowing close behind him.

"Where is William," I growled back. But when he got closer I couldn't keep my frustrated look on. I pointed towards where I had come from and Herman and the woman went that way.

The woman stopped, "Sorry, it has been a hard week. Your friend was taken into the castle."

"Thank you," I said wincing at the word taken. Could this get much worse?

She nodded, "I am Rhodenthe by the way. I wish you the best of luck." Then she turned hurrying after Herman.

I turned toward the castle heading to the guard by the entrance. "Hi, I am looking for a friend of mine. He is tan, reddish brown hair," I said.

"I am sorry, but you can't see your friend right now," said a voice behind me. Before I could even turn around something hit me in the head and the last thing I saw was the ground as I fell. As I fell I heard a laugh. I shiver internally at that. This couldn't be good.


	11. A Long Walk

Chapter 9

**A Long Walk**

A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find that after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us.

-John Steinback

I stood on a dirt road in what looked to be an old village just…cleaner. What you would see in an old western movie. I wondered if they still had lights, there were no power lines, but then again why would someone with magic powers need electricity? I glanced at Annabelle, could she do normal spells? That got me nervous just how powerful did they expect me to be?

Annabelle tossed a smile over her shoulder as I began to grow more and more nervous and a feeling I identified as content, swirled through me. William made a suspicious grunt noise. I looked over at him to see him staring at Annabelle. She laughed and his eyes narrow. Then suddenly she stopped, William, Evelyn who walked at Annabelle's side, and I all stopped at the same time. She turned slowly staring at William. I saw Evelyn laugh and I finally knew what was going on. Annabelle was trying to make William smile. So far it wasn't working. I laughed which caused William to look over at me. The loss of focus gave Annabelle the chance she needed, he smiled only to stubbornly turn it into a frown, or at least try to not a second later. Annabelle laughed, "You can't fight it forever. You are strong though." She spun twirling back to where she was facing before, walking toward the town and she called over her shoulder, "better then Evelyn."

Evelyn hurried after her shouting back at her, "I just don't want push you too far."

Annabelle slowed down, "Yeah, right."

While they continued arguing I glanced at William. He was staring after Annabelle and we started walking towards her keeping at about the same pace, "She is powerful, we need to be careful."

"Yes, yes you do," said a blur beside me then Rosalia appeared walking beside Evelyn behind Annabelle.

"They all are powerful," I whispered watching the three of them. Annabelle seemed to be leading of them, almost like an older sister. Three powerful girls all together, I wondered if that was on purpose or not. Then I thought of Kelly and Joseph. What time was it on their planet? It probably already had been years if the time was so different. Could that happen? Was there a chance we would get back to the exact time we had left? I didn't like the thought of going back and Joseph and Kelly being older or…no, it hadn't been that long they would still be alive. _What about the war? What if it already happened? _My fear disappeared and Annabelle slowed down until she was walking beside me. She bumped lightly against me, "It is okay, knowing Audra if you just traveled away from home on accident she will help."

"And if it isn't that simple?" William said, giving nothing away.

"Then you have a whole world of mages, witches, and other powerful people, wanting to help you." I closed my eyes. A whole world of magic that could be gone any day now, a world who's magic was about to be drained. Still I couldn't stay afraid for long; Annabelle sent another wave of happiness over me, looking over at me worriedly, and then looking at William frustrated as if to say, "Do something". Of course he did nothing at first.

Then she sped back up and William looked over at me and whispered, "think happy thoughts, you shouldn't make Annabelle think that we are afraid. Scared people can be unpredictable and she won't want to help us." As angry as it made me that he was giving me order I immediately started try to think of something happy, anything. First I thought of my dad, but that only made me miss him and worry about my mom so then I tried to think about my new home, of course then that made me think about school and worry about how much I was missing. Finally I settled with just staying in the present, meaning I looked around at the houses. It was getting more crowded but it just looked like normal people, of course they wore thicker clothes but not exactly western clothes. It looked like normal clothes…kind of…some people wore clothes with weird patterns or clothes that looked as if it all attached. Then I noticed everyone was wearing symbols. I didn't notice it before but now I did, Annabelle wore a purple stone in the shape of a heart around her neck. Evelyn wore a green stone in the shape of a moon around her wrist and Rosalia wore a sparkly white stone in the shape of a lily flower on a string around her neck. I looked around. They had stones that looked cool but other people had shapes placed somewhere on their outfit or as jewelry. Some people had either gold or blue stars, others had what looked like an orange crystal shaped to look like fire, and then there was one person with a wolf shaped out of grey stone.

Everyone was staring at him, Annabelle slowed down to walk next to William, "He is a werewolf. Stars are witches, fire is necromancer, seashell is mermaid, hearts are healers and shaman, and flowers are mages with some unusually power. There is also a moon which is warrior, wolf is werewolf, and diamond is vampire. The Protectors shape changes with the group. Werewolves and Vampires tend to stay with their own kind so this boy is a far away from home. Probably just buying something to bring home, but I have to go make sure nothing bad happens, be right back."

She turned leaving William and me standing there watching Annabelle. Rosalia and Evelyn were already standing near Annabelle as she yelled for everyone to calm down and immediately all attention went to her necklace then to her. Once it seemed she had everything under control Evelyn and Rosalia walked towards us. Evelyn was quiet Rosalia acted hyper and ran around in circles. I ignored them, I hated standing here.

"How much further do we had?" I asked William.

He turned slightly towards me away from Annabelle, "I don't know but I don't like it here. Do you think we should trust her, I mean she is powerful enough…" he said letting me fill in the blank. He was right we shouldn't fallow someone we don't know but it was really either that or walk around blindly just asking to run into trouble. I had already told Annabelle William's power, if she really wanted to use us as solders or whatever, knowing that and that I was the air mage of a group of protectors, was just too much for her to know.

I looked around, "where do you think we should go? We are kind stuck with her." I looked up at William, "it is fallow her and hope we can get away if anything really bad happens or walk around clueless as to where we are or how to get to the portal fields." He nodded then looked over his shoulder as Annabelle walked up with a girl who had black hair and read highlights who also looked to be about our age. How many teenage mages were walking around here? She wore a seashell shape on a bracelet. I already forgot what a seashell meant; I would guess it meant a water mage or mermaid.

"This is Alexis, as you can tell by her seashell she is a mermaid with the power of healing," Annabelle said gesturing towards the girl's seashell necklace, then turning toward us she said, "Alexis this is William and Claire." I smiled a greeting and William ignored it, we both wanted to keep moving. "Alexis will come with us for a short while; she needs to go over towards Moon Lake." She turned towards an adult who was walking towards us, I immediately noticed his spiral pin, "to Moon Lake please." He nodded taking Annabelle's hand, she took Alexis's hand and Alexis reached out for mine. I took it and I grabbed William's hand quickly before he had time to pull it away. And as I still stood clueless as to what was going on, for the third time today the land slipped away from me and I landed, this time lightly, back on my feet.

"I think I am getting good at that," I muttered as I brushed myself off. William walked up to me.

"Do you know where we are?" He asked. I just shook my head. He said, "We are at the great lakes."

"Wow, longest walk ever," I laughed. At least that seemed to be one good things about this magic stuff, I would probably never have to walk a long distance again. Of course thinking about that made me think about Kelly and I quickly tried to cover up my pain by looking around for Annabelle. Did we all get separated…again? But then I saw her down by the water with Alexis. Alexis's eyes were a different color, I couldn't remember what color they were before but now they were a light blue and I remember her eyes had been a different, darker color earlier.

William was looking around too, "now we really are stuck with Annabelle," He growled and trust me, I was no happier about that then he was. Annabelle was nice but much more of this and we would never get there. She waved for us to come over to her. And I noticed two things at once; Alexis was now heading straight into the water and I noticed her legs seemed to be slowly transforming into fins and Annabelle was standing with a guy who had to be at least 22. He looked impatient. I walked over to her with William fallowing cautiously behind me. "William, Claire this is James. James these are the travelers," said Annabelle when were within hearing distance. That is when I noticed James had red eyes. My mind flashed back to the other night, only yesterday actually (well actually it is in the future, but I already experienced it. Wow, time travel is confusing) when I saw the man with red eyes. That made me wince, that was not a time I wanted to remember. Jane's voice still echoed in my ears, was I really doing this completely wrong? Perhaps when, if I got back to my time and got Kelly and Joseph and went back home then I could stop this. Perhaps William and I could even go back in time before everyone had transported and stopped us…

A flash of light reflected off of something hit my eyes bringing me back into the present. I blinked focusing on what the light had reflected off of. I noticed a diamond shape on a black sting around James' neck. I tried to remember what that meant he was but I met his red eyes and knew. I stepped backwards, bumping into William.

"Vampire," I said under my breath.

* * *

**Another chapter coming soon. I am getting to the better part.**

**Claire: You are moving really slowly with this story.**

**I plan on after I finish to take it off of the internet completely and take out some of the more boring parts.**

**William: So this is basically the bad unedited part.**

**Yepz. But I would really like reviews. I so far have only one (thank you!) but I would find them very helpful.**

^..^*Crystalpath*^..^


	12. Captured

**Chapter 11**

**Captured**

"Suppose you could gain everything in the whole world, and lost your soul. Was it worth it?"  
-Billy Graham

When I woke I was in a dark room. It took only a minute for my eyes to adjust and when they did I scrambled backwards. I was sitting in a cave. Glowing eyes bright as two stars came into the dark room. I could just barely make out the shadow of a girl I recognized. I searched my memory tying to remember but all I could think about was how I was cornered, couldn't see, and alone except for this stranger. I continued moving backwards until I bumped into a wall. I ignored the dirt that fell down into my shirt and watched the eyes as they came closer.

"Good so you are awake," a woman's voice said. There was nothing familiar about the voice. It was rough but high. Like what I would imagine a small dog's voice sounding if it could talk. DOG! Memories flashed of the night before. As I remembered who this was I pushed harder against the wall. "Weird how it seems you and your friend opened a portal. I fell in behind you though we seem to have fallen in different ways; it took me awhile to find you here."

"Where am I?" I said putting all of my focus into keeping my words from being shaky, proud of myself when I did. I looked around to see if I could find the exit, a way to escape but I could only see black rock.

"In a cave," The woman said snickering slightly. I resisted the want to yell at her. That much was obvious; I had actually been wondering the location of the cave. I should have guessed she wouldn't tell me.

So I moved on to the next obvious question, "what do you want?"

"Same as everyone else I guess, power, wealth, happiness. This all eventually lead back to magic, which I can only get with the gates of Avalon open. And that would bring us to you and your friends, I have come to put an end to this little field trip and have you four open the gates of Avalon for me."

"But why," I asked trying to keep her talking as I slowly walked around the perimeter of the cave.

"Well I believe I just believe I told you why. And now I must ask you to stop moving it is very distracting." She stepped in front of me blocking the only exit I could see.

"Where is William?"

"Good question, I have no clue where he is." This made me stop. "Here is another good question. Where are your two other friends. I can't seem to find them."

"I-I" I began. I didn't know what to say. I couldn't tell her where they were if there was a chance she could get there. "I don't know. Not in this time zone I don't think." I said keeping it as true as possible so she wouldn't be able to figure out I was lying. I didn't know exactly where Valdamor was so I didn't know where they were and they weren't in this time zone.

She laughed, but in an unusual way. Not exactly the evil villain laugh you hear on TV, but it seemed much scarier than that. It could just be the fact this strange women had me cornered up in a cave though. "Transportation is such an unusual thing now isn't it. But it is a power many normal witches are able to master for it is all about focus. If you are able to focus on the image of one simple place as you force you body to separate and move at the speed of light then rejoin at the spot in your mind then you can transport."

She said it in a joking way but I took notes of what she was saying in my mind. Dream or no dream in a place with magic it is best to know this kind of stuff.

"Of course every ones' mind works differently. Some people find it easy to transport and other find it easier to just run at the speed of light," she said, "now let's get back on topic shall we?"

She stared at me smiling viciously as she seemed to be trying to remember what she had been saying. "Why do you care about me, Kelly, William, and Joseph?"

"Well _I _don't care one bit about you or your little friends, what I care about are magic and power. If I were in charge you four would already be hypnotized and under Thorn's powers. Thorn will believe just about anything. From there everything would be easy."

"Who is Thorn?" I asked trying to avoid the subject of what she planned to do with me.

"Ah, that is right you probably can't remember everything very well with your small human mind," I ignored the insult, "He is basically Jane's little servant. He is a vampire. I, if you have forgotten, am Annie. I am probably looked at as a warrior but I am just waiting for Jane's 'love for Earth and the creatures that live on it' to lead her into trouble." She unsuccessfully tried to match the voice of the woman I had seen last night when she spoke of Jane's love for Earth. "I am, obviously a werewolf," she continued ignoring my pause. Maybe just mistaking it for surprise, "There are many others in the group but fewer then there is here."

"Then what are you going to do with me?" I said unable to avoid the question any longer.

"I am going to keep you here while I go find your friends. So I hope you don't mind the dark because you might be here for awhile." She laughed without humor as she backed up out of the entrance. At first I was confused as to why she left the door unguarded but I guessed someone or something was guarding the entrance. So I sat down straining my ears to listen to her footsteps, listening as they faded away. I waited until I couldn't hear them anymore and slowly got up. I walked as silently as possible on the rock floor to one side of the cave keeping my eyes on the door trying to see around the corner. Nothing. I tried the other side. Still nothing. I walked slowly forward, still trying to strain my ears jumping at the sound of rocks crumbling somewhere further down the cave. I gulped, how deep was this? I guessed not too deep because it was brighter outside the cave. I stepped through the entrance. Still nobody but the tunnel was tighter now in the form of a tunnel. It was tight enough I could touch both side of the wall from where I stood. I looked down the tunnel, it got brighter up ahead so I walked forward fallowing the light. The tunnel broke off to the left when I was about half way to the light but I ignored it guessing it was just another cave and continued forward toward the light. It was getting brighter and then the tunnel turned about 90 degrees to the right. I walked faster expecting to see the exit and be outside in only seconds but when I got there I saw the tunnel lead on further into darkness. The light coming from a hole in the ceiling, it was about 6 feet over my head. I gulped spinning quickly and running back to the turn I had seen earlier running blindly, a stupid thing to do I noticed later. Finally I got tired still not seeing any exits, or light sources. I fell onto my knees crying. I was trapped. I was stuck in this tunnel, my friends about to be captured. Everything was ruined and all only because of one silly little prophecy. Everything seemed to fall away as I drifted into unconsciousness.

* * *

Slowly we are crawling towards the end of this story.

All Charecters: Hooray!

I have 2 things to announce: Chapter 15 is a chapter completely in Williams POV. The last chapter will be the 16th or 17th chapter. I would also like to thank everyone who has reviewed my story. It is helpful and encouraging.

Now with those things cleared away, Joseph end this chapter!

Joseph: Please read and review! And don't forget: You should never run blindly through a tunnel once you have found a light source.

Claire: :P I was panicked, it is better then just throwing rocks or something.

Kelly: Actually throwing rocks out of the hole would have been a good idea, then you could have hoped to get someones attention. Or you could have gathered rocks and made stairs.

I said Joseph!

Claire: *grumbles* He started it.

**^..^*Crystalpath*^..^**


	13. Escape

**Chapter 12**

**Escape**

"Think you're escaping and run into yourself. Longest way round is the shortest way home. "

-James Joyce

I had lost count of the days. It felt like years but really I estimated it to only be two days since I had slept for a long time twice. I was already dehydrated, hungry, and uncomfortable. I could do nothing but walk blindly day after day. I didn't even know what time it was, I desperately needed a clock. But more desperately I needed water. There was some moisture on the walls but not enough. I was getting bad cramps and sore throat. But I had given up on crying, there was no point. Complaining about the pain to myself just made it worst. It really didn't matter how I looked, or smelled although I easily guessed I was a mess. I began to wonder if this is why Annie put me here, so that I would be trapped.

My mind flicked back to a movie I watched about a guy being stranded on an island and laughed at the thought of how his life seemed easier than mine. Of course at least I had some hope of finding my way out but I didn't know what was waiting at the exit. I was sure it wasn't going to be anything good. I didn't know what was worst right now, being found by Annie and maybe even being killed or going hungry and crazy in these caves.

I continued down the tunnel. It felt more nightmare then real life. I could see nothing and I could swear I was hearing voices but the question was, were they in my head or was I really hearing them? I heard some crumbling stone in the tunnels behind me but I ignored it, I was getting use to the sounds in the tunnels. I dropped onto my knees as a wave of pain rocked over to me. I rolled into a ball groaning, the need for water growing stronger. I sat there forcing away tears until it passed then got up and pushed myself forward. I kept along the left wall so I could find my way back if I really needed to.

With all of this available time the only safe thing for my mind to think about was putting the puzzle together. So I guessed The Openers were the ones who wanted the gates of Avalon open that was obvious enough. And I guessed their leader believed that it was best for earth that way since Annie had said she did love Earth. Some people just wanted the power though; I also knew that from Annie. But what would happen when all of the sudden magic was dumped onto Earth. I thought it was obvious that, that would be very bad. All non-magical things would probably end up dying and by the fact Avalon had to be protected I knew that if there was a very small population of magic controllers on Earth then everyone would have too much magic. That couldn't be a good thing.

So all of that could means two things,

One: no magic on Earth, too much magic could be really bad.

Two: the openers had to be stopped.

Now if only I could solve those two things, but currently I was in no position to do that. I sat down. The prophecy made some since now, the gates had been closed for a long time and they could bring danger to Earth and currently nobody seemed to consider that, or at least they overlooked it. Four people were chosen and there was kind of a war although not as black as white as I wished it could be. Earth might be able to get use to the magic, it might get better. But it could also be dangerous. There was no completely right or wrong thing to do.

I had also been given time to think about escaping. I had tried screaming plenty of times so that was out. I had tried hand throwing rocks at about everything so that was out. I was completely lost so backtracking was out. I thought about just closing my eyes and walking around at random but I didn't want to get more lost, if possible. I thought about using my powers but I didn't know how and I was trying to convince myself I didn't need to yet, that it wasn't that desperate yet. My stomach disagreed.

I crumpled down onto the ground groaning in pain as yet another wave of pain swept over me. I moaned lying down on the cold, hard ground on my side. When it finally faded I let my eyelids droop and sleep swirled over me as I wished for escape, for home, for my old life.

"Claire," said a voice. I was standing in a small meadow, the wind blowing back my soft blonde hair. I leaned up to face it ignoring the voice until I heard footsteps then I turned around to see…William. What was he doing here?

"Where are you Claire?" He asked. What was he talking about? I was right here. Then my mind flashed back to the tunnel, glowing eyes, Annie leaving me there to die. I stumbled, almost falling as I remembered where I really was.

"Yes, where are you my dear?" growled a voice that stepped toward me from the left. When I saw her I stumbled, again. I was Annie.

"Claire?" Said William I glanced over at him and more pain splashed over me, pain from the memories of my family, everything that I had tried to forget in the caves reawakening in this dream, now a nightmare.

"Claire!" ordered another voice, the woman from the other night. I didn't know how long ago it was exactly. Suddenly everything got darker and the woman looked exactly how I remembered her. William looked scared; Annie looked furious; Jane looked confident. Then more voices called my name. I spun around and around taking in all of the people. My parents, Liliann from my old school, people who I had seen at my new school, Kelly, Joseph, the queens and kings I had just met along with Prince Charles, then Annabelle and her friend. Finally I stopped facing William; he was staring directly at me with a pain in his dark orange eyes I had never seen before. "Where are you?" He whispered then I woke up gasping at the suddenness.

I curled into a tighter ball as the pain woke-up with me. Then once it faded I got up, holding onto a wall as the world spun for a few seconds. That was it! I was using my powers and get out of here once and for all!

How did William, Kelly, and Joseph use their powers? I remember back in the tree cave Joseph had said something about just willing Kelly to heal. So what were my powers? I had made a bunch of stuff levitate in the class room and in the forest. Perhaps I could just make a big boulder fly up into the roof of the tunnel. I had tried envisioning the stuff moving, asking it nicely, crying, and begging it as I moaned in pain.

Now I walked slowly forward searching the sides of the tunnel until I came along a huge boulder secretly just blaming the other rocks for not moving instead of blaming myself. I sat as far away as I could with it still in my sight. I stared at it just mentally yelling at it to move wishing it was in the air, wishing for a way out of the cave again. Nothing. I closed my eyes and imagined it hitting the roof just like I had before. More nothing. Perhaps the roof was too much. I closed my eyes imagining it floating in the air. I opened my eyes to see a bunch of rocks floating in the air, interesting but so not helpful right now. I tried a couple times to get them to fall but they stayed where they were.

"Just fall down!" I yelled at them, my temper flaring as I was preparing to just give up and move to another spot again, I swept my hands down as I yelled it. Then I was surprised by them actually obeying me. They all dropped bouncing a couple times on the ground until finally became completely still. Hmmm…I turned toward the big boulder again, excited now that I had moved rocks twice on purpose.

"Come!" I yelled, beckoning with my hands and it flew at me; I dashed out of the way just before it hit me. I collapsed on the floor gasping. "Okay maybe not so much power. Please, come just right here," I said patting the ground in front of me ready to bolt if it flew. The boulder lifted and dropped carefully where my hand had been.

"Better," I said and I moved away from it again. I swept my hand through my hair to find a bunch of knots and pulled my hand back away wish disgust. I needed out. I yelled 'up' and pointed at the ceiling above it. The boulder shot up. What I hadn't been expecting was for the boulder to actually get stuck in the ceiling along with many tiny rocks. I ordered it back down and dirt fell on my head and a loud crashing noise sounded. I stumbled backwards just as a huge piece of the ceiling crashed in front of me. I leaned against the wall until the noise stopped and I waved the dust out of my face, coughing as I did so. I looked around, great now I was trapped between the wall and a big pile of rocks.

I looked up and down the pile I had created as I bent down breathing through another knot in my stomach. It looked like I could kind of climb up it so I slowly made my way up to the top of the pile after a couple of deep breaths. My knees and hands were getting torn up but the excitement of escape was greater than the pain. I finally came to the top only to find a big boulder blocking my way. If it was out of the way I could stand on my knees and touch the ceiling. I saw light above. That, I decided later is what made me say the words to make the rock move without thinking what might happen.

"Forward," I yelled pushing the rock slightly. Then the unexpected happened, all of the rocks moved, and that meant I slowly began to sink. I struggled to keep on top but then my stomach knotted and I screamed in pain as I collapsed, my legs began to sink and crush under the rocks as if the rocks were quick sand. "Stop!" I screamed wildly and at last they stopped. I pulled my legs out with all the force I had. They were very badly injured and bleeding badly. I cried and screamed again.

I grabbed a rock from below me and started hitting the ceiling, letting my anger take full control of my actions. A bunch of rocks came falling down getting me covered in dirt but I could get out. I worked my way out of the tunnel wishing I could move more easily and painlessly and fell exhaustedly onto the soft grass. I let new tears cover my face, this time tears of thankfulness and joy. I never thought I would be so happy to see grass.

"Of all things to come out of a hole in the ground at this time of day," said a voice behind me. I turned to see someone I hadn't expected the see ever again.

"Annabelle!" I cried.


	14. Final Puzzle Pieces

**Chapter 13**

**Final Puzzle Pieces**

"We are always paid for our suspicion by finding what we suspect."

-Henry David Thoreau

Annabelle had led me to a small river and now was talking to Evelyn, discussing what Evelyn must have heard in my mind. I kindly helped her explain, bringing up memories as she talked. I drank the water thankfully. They had moved off into the forest so I can bathe all the blood from my body. Annabelle had taken some pain, which I didn't know she could do but I could stand, not painlessly but easily enough. When I was done I took one last big, thankful gulp of water and I set off finding Annabelle and Evelyn deeper in the forest. Annabelle was sitting down in the tall grass and Evelyn sat on a rock, she didn't seem to love the nature the way Annabelle did I observed. Rosalia was not with them. Annabelle didn't point this out so I didn't either.

I had sat down for five second before I felt some more pain (but not as much as before) swirl over me as Annabelle got up. "Back to the castle," she sighed, "but this time I will make sure _someone _is watching you." I just nodded. I stood up slowly and Evelyn looked prepared to help me walk but I took two steps forward overcoming my wobbliness, either it was me who overcame it or Annabelle who took it, I didn't know which one it was, but we continued heading through the forest. Again we came upon a couple people. The first person was a lighter; he was good at making small balls of light that supposedly worked like flashlights. He was just taking a walk and couldn't transport people. The second person was better at running then transporting and couldn't promise us a safe journey without becoming deformed or lost. The third, as the saying goes was the charm. She called herself the best transporter on Earth and easily could get us just outside the castle. Annabelle requested to go inside the castle grounds and after a quick argument and what I guess was a pinch of magic the transporter accepted and we all took hands and this time I closed my eyes. When we came to the castle, it was a very soft landing but pain immediately rushed up my legs. I gasped and fell.

"Sorry, sorry, sorry," Annabelle apologized and the pain faded as she took some. "Apparently I can't take pain while transporting," she said.

"Interesting," Evelyn said, "Haven't tried that before." Annabelle nodded her head in agreement.

"Now let's go," I said now anxious to find William. And we continued forward saying good bye to the transporter. We didn't get far before Audra, Herman, Jaromir, and the water mage came out of the bushes.

"What are you DOING? You're not supposed to transport here. You're not even supposed to be here," Herman yelled gesturing towards me. His reddish hair seemed brighter than before but his dark golden eyes are what made me step back for they seemed to be full of anger and hatred, more so then I had ever seen before, directed at me. I had never had anyone hate me, maybe dislike me but never hate.

"I am actually allowed to if someone is in pain or danger." Annabelle said stepping in front of me, blocking my view of Herman.

"And who, may I ask is in pain or danger?" Audra said gesturing for Herman to be quiet.

"Claire is," Annabelle said sweeping her hands toward my scrapped knees and arms. "She just escaped from a cave she was being kept captive by a werewolf named Annie."

"And why should we believe you any more then we believe her?" ordered Herman. Audra gave him a sharp look but didn't order him to be quiet.

"Because I do not lie and if I really did want you to believe me I would just use my powers to, but I don't just want you to believe me. I want you to protect her, to keep her safe here."

"Let's discuss this inside," the water mage said.

"Agreed, Rhodenthe. This is not the time for arguing. But we can't leave Claire here alone, it really isn't safe. This is where she was captured last time."

"We'll just go stand in the garden. Evelyn can stay here with her." Audra suggested. Annabelle thought for a second then left. A couple minutes later there was more yelling again.

"I should go help," Evelyn said nervously. She had been shifting from side to side. Keeping her here was doing no good. I nodded and she left.

Of course with my luck I would be attacked instantly so I leaned against a tree keeping watch for anything suspicious.

"If you want to see William, you will follow me quietly," a voice said as hand came over my mouth, of course I should have known. I thought about fighting back, maybe throwing some rocks around but that would do no good since I would probably be the only one getting hurt and I had to find William. I looked over to where Evelyn had gone wishing Rosalia had been with them so she could run and get someone. But there was no use in wishing for something that wasn't there so I nodded and turned to see a man. He gestured for me to walk in front of him. I did so turning when he told me to. I still had very little pain; I wondered how far I could go from Annabelle without the pain coming back. As if to answer my question a wave of pain swept over me causing me to fall. I yelped out and fell over.

"Move!" the man yelled at me. I expected him to kick me and when he didn't I stood up glancing back at him. From before I hadn't seen much. He had grey hair that was styled messily. His wild eyes added to his look, he looked like a crazy old man seeking revenge on the world. I gulped pushing myself slowly and painfully forward. The man pushed me causing me to stumble and fall. I pulled myself back up before he could say anything and ignored the pain as I rushed quickly forward. I almost bumped into another man. He looked about 35, with nicer black hair and kind brown eyes. His eyes were empty though, as if he too was going wild.

"Very good Joe, here ya go," he said handing Joe a handful of some kind of money. Then he took me yanking me into a building. This time I screamed fighting against his pull.

"Oh will ya be quiet! It doesn't help any." He growled at me forcing me to look at him. I closed my mouth pulling away. Wincing at the sharp stab of pain it caused.

"Now that's better," He growled pushing me into a room. I landed on my knees, scrapping them making tears spark in my eyes.

"Claire?" asked a voice. I turned towards it.

"William!" I shouted joyfully. He came over, his eyes wide. I look around; we were basically in a big cement box. The sound of the door closing made me jump slightly which only made me wince in pain.

"What happened?" he asked. His voice seemed to carry some worry in it which was unusual. It made me wonder if I should be the one asking that question.

"Now, ya both stay in there and I will come-on back for ya later." Said the man through a small hole cut out in the center of the door. Then I heard the smack of feet as he walked away. I sighed I was now officially trapped…again.

"Who?" I asked.

"Jerold, the guy Kelly told us about," William answered, as he helped to get me sitting against the wall then moved to lean on the opposite wall which was only about 2 feet away from my feet.

"Why?"

"Unknown, I think he is just trying to use us as weapons. He still is hoping to get the magic he wants before the gates are closed."

"Any chance of escaping?"

"Possibly, he has taken me out a couple of times and he has no guards. I have no clue what his power is."

"So you could have left, but didn't?"

"I was gathering information. He didn't know where you were. But I think he is the one who gave us the prophecy."

"How?"

"I heard him saying it as if he knew it from memory. He said something about writing it on some stones-"

I gasped; I had seen the four stones when I received the prophecy. I explained this to William. "Audra said something about her just getting a message. It must have been on there since just recently. But how come we weren't pulled back into this time in the first place then?"

"Because you didn't finish saying the spell, the werewolf stopped you."

"Annie," I said, "she is here too. She is the one who captured me. She was pulled here."

"The werewolf captured you?"

"Yes, she must not have been pulled a different way in the portal then we were because she hadn't been holding hands with us, in this world they seem to hold hands as they transport."

"No, \that still doesn't seem right," William said.

"But what about the prophecy, it all seems to be coming true."

"Jerold said his son was taking care of it. His son supposedly is the King," then his eyes shot open, he looked over at me, "his son is king of the south."

"So Prince Charles is related to him,"

"Apparently the want to use the protectors as weapons to open the gates of Avalon still hasn't worn off."

"So all along we were never suppose to even know about our powers. Does that mean there have been people before us with powers and they just learned to ignore them?"

"No, groups of people like that could never have kept that a secret for so long. Rumors would have spread and drama would have been created. Besides we do still have to worry about The Openers."

"Well maybe something The Openers have done has actually worked then, maybe some magic is flowing back to Earth…" I wondered off again it flowed into the area between right and wrong. Was magic on Earth a good or bad thing? I didn't know and didn't think there really was any right or wrong answer. It made me nervous, who was going to make these choices. It sounded like I was suppose to but I had only found out about magic about a week ago. I didn't even know how to drive yet! I can't make world changing decision like this!

William touched my knee. I looked up at him; he was on his knee beside me. "We will figure this out," he reassured me, "we all will you, me, Kelly, and Joseph.  
"It is you, Kelly, Joseph, and I," I corrected.

He surprised me by laughing, "of course if you continue doing that perhaps we don't actually need Kelly." His smile fell quickly as he got up.

"We need to get out," I whispered.

William looked over at me, "there is no way we can even get out of here until you get some rest and your legs heal." I nodded but kept my eyes open.

"Sleep Claire, I want to get home and I can't do that if you are unable to walk," William said sounding a bit more like his normal self. And I obeyed silently, closing my eyes only wanting to rest for a second until I found myself easily falling deeply into unconsciousness as I silently hoped William would wake me if Jerold came back.

* * *

Claire: awww, how sweet. See William is nice.

I am enjoying writing in William POV for chapter 15. He has kind of a different perspective then you do.

Joeseph: What about me?

You come back, but your not as important. You and Kelly both were never that important to William. He respected you guys but he wasn't about to die to save you.

Claire: You guys are killing the moment.

*sigh* Please review, more is coming soon.

**^..^*Crystalpath*^..^**


	15. Change of Plans

**Change of Plans**

**Chapter 14**

"A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find that after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us."  
-John Steinbeck

It took four days for me to heal. There is nothing much to say about those four days. We were kept in the same room. Jerold wanted us alive enough to give us food and water but not enough to give us anything more than that. At first I didn't care, I was too hungry to care but as my stomach filled I was able to feel the stiffness in my legs and pain in my back. I was now beginning to be thankful for the bath in the pond I had taken before going with Annabelle. I slept most of the time; William would not be my choice of someone to be locked in a room with. But I was glad someone was there to help me move around. He seemed…off. He was more helpful than usual, listening when I told him about home and school, trying to get my mind off of the pain and where I was.

Today I could walk around, I became tired fast but it was better than before. But still William had been the only one to be taken outside, more and more often now. Every time I got nervous he wasn't coming back, every time he did and every time he came back more anxious to get out. I blamed myself although he argued that it wasn't my fault the werewolf had fallowed us.

Now he was outside, leaving me in the tiny box, alone. I knew I should use my power, I could move the keys or crash a wall but after last time I really didn't want to. I didn't tell William that I probably could. I wondered if he had already had guessed and was trying…well not to be polite but maybe to give me a chance to heal or maybe he was hoping I would do it willingly.

I glanced out the door but shook my head. I shouldn't even think about doing something so stupid as to escape when William wasn't here. We still didn't know Jerold's power and if he turned out to be a vampire or some evil powerful fire demon thing that could kill us just by looking at us. It was too risky. Besides, I told myself they should be coming back soon. And as I thought that I heard footsteps. I got up and looked out of the window. Outside this room was a small clearing with a chair in the middle and dense forest all around. Beside the chair were some bowls both big and small and a couple large pots. Small bowls were for water, larger bowls for soup. Jerold went to these things and filled up four bowls handing them to William before opening the prison cell. As he held it open I tensed to get ready to run, as I did every time but as always William shook his head and entered. Jerold slammed and locked the door behind him.

"Hmm, looks like I've been overfeedin ya. Need ta go an get more. I'll be back, don't ya move," Jerold said in his sloppy English as he looked into the pot. He gave me a glare that said he meant it through the window and trotted off into the wood. William handed me the soup.

"We gotta get out of here," he said. I eyed the keys on the seat outside the window. It was too far to reach but I might be able to move it. William noticed, "You said you moved rocks in the cave, can you…" he trailed off as he saw my look of fear.

"I don't have full control of it," I said wincing as I imagined what could happen if I tried to move the key.

He nodded looking away as if he still wanted to argue but decided it wasn't worth it. I sighed going back to gulping down my tasteless, cold soup and foul tasting water. Times like this made almost wish for my dad's horrid cooking. Tears threatened to spring up at the thought of him but I pushed them away.

"I can try," I said, "But if I do it is most likely the key will end up in here and Jerold is going to be mad."

"We can't stay here any longer," William said, "he is trying to figure out our powers and he is getting closer." I nodded taking a deep breath. He hesitated as if arguing between himself of what to say but I beat him to it.

"Let's see if I can get it to at least float," I closed my eyes imagining to key, seeing it lift slowly and trying to keep only the key in my mind which was hard. I had read so many stories about people doing this but it was hard because I can't actually _see _anything with my eyes close. I was able to just kind of think about it.

"Good now bring it over- HEY!" William said. I opened my eyes to see him floating. I couldn't help but smile until I thought of how dangerous this could be. I closed my eyes avoiding thinking about what could happen so that it wouldn't and imagined him dropping down softly. "Oooff," he said. I really have to work on that. I went back to the key imagining it in the lock. But as soon as I heard William trying to encouraged me as softly as possible so he wouldn't end up levitating again, I heard a swoosh noise. My eyes flew open, the key falling. I crumpled back imagining Jerold running in and seeing the key but William pushed me up, keeping me from backing away.

"There you guys are!" said a voice from the forest, one I had heard three times now.

"Annabelle!" I screamed.

"Well Miss. Claire, you just can't seem to keep out of a trap now can you?" said the man I had seen earlier, the earth mage named Jaromir.

"Apparently not," said a gruff voice from behind him. The first man we had seen almost a week ago, the fire mage named Herman, also the first person to ever truly hate me. Oh joy.

"Now how did you guys get into Jerold's prison instead of him, actually I don't think I want to know the answer right now, come on," said the voice I knew the best of the four, Audra. I heard a click then the door swung open.

"And I see one of you is telekinetic," said Audra.

"Oh, I know who is!" Annabelle said. "I thought she would have already told you her power. I saw her using it when I first met her."

I was glad they didn't know William's power, "it was an accident," I said when I noticed Audra staring at me.

She nodded, "come along," she said. And she jumped up into the air.

"Can't follow you when you are up there!" shouted Herman and I heard her laugh. But I was too amazed to be amused; she was flying…well kind of. She was more or less just making a big leap, unlike how super heroes in comic books glide through the air like an airplane. But then she fell straight back to where she had been, like someone had put the rewind button on her. Everyone seemed shocked so I was guessing that wasn't supposed to happen. Then as she touched the ground she seemed to freeze then fall out of whatever spell had been put on her and she fell down onto her back.

"I warn ya to not go an do that again," said a voice that I knew almost as well as Annie's now. "I may not be one of ya Protectors," he said the word with such disgust that Herman, the man who I had last seen with anger in his eyes, cringe slightly, "but I have power of my own." His hand swept over to the water mage whose big blue eyes flew open with surprise. "Now Herman," he growled the name, "ya are goin to tell me where the portal field is and Audra," his other hand flew up towards the Earth mage who was running his hand through his dark brown hair nervously, his eyes narrowed as he seemed to be thinking out a plan, "ya are goin to tell me how I am able to open a portal to the future."

"I can't do that," Audra said glancing over at Jaromir nervously.

"Oh but ya can. Or else this," his left arm swept away from Rhodenthe, the big blue eyed water mage, to Annabelle who had come to stand protectively by me. A large ball of light swirled and hit her side and she went down screaming. I heard several people along with me scream her name and I stumbled over to her wishing I had her power and could take some pain, "will only be the beginnin," finished Jerold, "besides, I think ya need to get my fine friend here a ride home."

At first I thought he meant me and William but then the one person I feared, the only person who could actually call 2010 her home in this time period, Annie.

I screamed and flew back, William caught me and I curled against him, memories of the pain in the cave, the thought of being trapped again, too much to bear.

"Well then this is a full house," said Annabelle as she stood up. I saw blood where he hit her but it seemed to have healed. No wonder Jerold's warning shot had been on her. If he had hit someone else she would have take their pain anyways. At first I thought she just said it to show she was fine but then Evelyn stepped up to one side and Rosalie appeared suddenly on the other. They both looked scared. Annabelle couldn't possibly be thinking about making them fight, not someone as gentle and kind hearted as her. But I saw Jerold think about this.

"Stop this now!" Audra commanded. She didn't seem to like the thought of a fight or maybe she just didn't like that this was falling out of her control.

"I can fight," growled Evelyn.

"No! No one is going to fight!" said Rhodenthe crumpling back as the ball of light pointed towards her grew.

"Now, now Jerold, don't give these nice mages a heart attack," Annie said in what was probably suppose to be a sickly sweet voice but to me was only a growl from a ravenous beast. "We just want to get back to my time then everyone can go on their merry ways."

"No!" hissed Jaromir as Annie swept behind Audra and wrapped her arm in a chocking position around Audra's neck.

"Or we can just kill all of you and hope the next set of protectors will be more helpful."

Then just out of the corner of my eye I saw Evelyn nod and whisper something to Annabelle and Rosalie at the same time Herman gesture something to Jaromir, Rhodenthe, and Audra. I stepped back from William and glanced at him but his full gaze was on Jerold. Jerold's attention was on me so I decided to keep it that way so that whatever the others were planning they wouldn't have their idea ruined.

"Why do you want to get to 2010?" I asked gesturing with my hand as much as possible although usually I didn't talk with my hands, this would help keep his and Annie's focus on me. But it was unnecessary. Before he could respond, there were bright lights and blurs everywhere. Rosalia, Annabelle, and Evelyn had all moved together into a fighting position. Annabelle in middle back creating some kind of purple-looking force field around everyone, Evelyn to the front left creating rings of what looked like water around herself then shooting them faster than I could see, and Rosalia was to the right with her hand palm up and she seemed to be making a big ball of fire that she seemed to still be charging.

The four protectors were all over the place. I could barely see them. Annie I knew was there but she seem to be invisible. Jerold was the one firing back and he seemed to have a shield around him too. Whose was weaker? Eventually someone would be hurt or killed. Then as if to answer my question, Jerold shot at me. And I felt a rush of pain then nothing as the world blacked out and I fell into a soft pillow of numbness.

When I woke everyone was surrounding me.

"What?" I looked towards William then over at Annabelle for the answer. William reached his hand out which I took. He pulled me gently up to my feet and I looked around. What I saw made me gasp. We were all trapped in the room.

"Annie snuck up on us, she started threatening us and basically threatened us to give Jerold what he wanted and then to stand here while she locked us up," Rhodenthe explained as I looked over everyone. I saw a scar on Audra's arm that made me gasp.

"Annie had to show us she meant business," William whispered into my ear. I nodded. I looked around for Annabelle, she wasn't there. Neither was Rosalia or Evelyn.

"Don't bother," Herman said, "they left." I shook my head about to argue but Herman interrupted, "did you really think Jerold wanted _her_, a powerful healer and her powerful young helpers there? He released her and Annie made sure they were gone."

"So now what?" I asked accepting that answer.

"Now you levitate the key and we all escape," Jaromir responded, his arms around Audra.

I agreed. It took several tries before I could actually do anything than twice as many times to actually get it close to the window. I was ready to give up when finally I got it close enough I just barely caught it with my fingers. I couldn't reach the lock but Audra could so she unlocked the door and everyone basically fell out, like opening a closet after a bunch of five year olds cleaned the house.

Now we were on our way running through the forest to the portal field. Rhodenthe was explaining how we would find the portal. I tried to listen. Apparently it was grouped into two sections, places and times. The further away the time or place the less the portal came. This meant if Jerold and Annie just left then we would have about 41 minutes before the next portal since we were going 41,961,600 minutes into the future.

I didn't know how far we had run. Last time it had seemed shorter. How long had I been knocked out? I asked William he said about 20 minutes which was too long in my opinion. I wondered why they hadn't just done something to wake me up but was kind of afraid to ask if they had. So I moved onto the next question, what was going to happen. Audra had come down to answer that one. She told me we were going to stop the Openers, restore the stones that William had told her about and hopefully stop this from ever even happening. I asked why we weren't going back in time which William agreed with. Jaromir just said it was unsafe and Audra did her jump/flying thing again.

When we finally got there I sat on the ground, well I kind of just collapsed on the ground to be truthful, as the never-tired Audra searched for the portal. Unlike in the future, the ground was marked with lines in the grass and weird letters and numbers I couldn't read written on stones near the top of each square

"How come we can understand when you talk but not your written word?" I asked. It wasn't like I hadn't thought of that earlier, just the topic hadn't come up. I wasn't really thinking about this. My mind was rushing around to what was about to happen and questions seemed to pop up everywhere. I didn't hear Rhodenthe's response as more questions came up and suddenly it became obvious what I had to do.

"Here we go." Audra said as the ground swirled in one of the squares on the ground.

"Let's go home," William said to me. I looked up into his eyes and I knew exactly what I had to do.

"No," I said and I turned and ran. For a short while I heard people running after me but the footstep eventually faded away. I hid until they were completely gone then I looked up at the now darkening sky, I would sleep here tonight and tomorrow I would save the world…or possibly kill myself trying.

* * *

William: WOW, what is up with Claire?

You have to wait and see.

Joeseph: When is the next chapter coming?

Not for awhile, I am still writing it, you have caught up to me. But the answer isn't in the next chapter. The next chapter is William's POV.

William: Right when you don't want it.

That would be the point. LOL The next chapter is coming soon. It is so far my favorite chapter other then the Prologue. (This one would be my favorite but I really am bad at writing about people fighting. I just can't bring myself to kill anyone)

Joeseph: Okay, go get writing! Please review and thank you to the people who have reviewed.

**^..^*Crystalpath*^..^**


	16. Home Sweet Home

**Chapter 15**

**Home Sweet Home**

"In a life of anger, love, and pain I have come to notice that even after you think you have lost everything, time will remain."

-Sarah Strawn

"Claire" I growled as she yelled no. What was the matter with her? Did she really want to stay here? I glanced behind me making sure she wasn't actually screaming about danger but when I turned she was stomping away. What?

"Claire!" I screamed surprised. I rushed forward trying to grab for her but she ran. I fallowed for a short while to find I was too late. "Claire!" She was gone. What had just happened?

"We have to leave now!" Audra was screaming. Her voice rising. She was just about as annoying as Annabelle. Although I had to admit I could get use to having Annabelle around but Audra was different. She _had _to be in control. She _had_ to be the leader. This was going to upset her. I walked back to the portal.

"What was that about?" Herman growled. I clenched my teeth at that.

"I don't know," I said fighting to keep my voice calm. Yelling wouldn't help although I truly wanted to just punch this guy and run and find Claire.

"We have to go before the portal closes," Audra said trying to sound calm like I did but failing.

"I don't leave without Claire," I growled.

"She knows how to get here, you can leave a message. We can't force her to come," Rhodenthe reasoned. I looked over at her. She reminded me a lot of how Claire used to act back at school. Quiet and reasonable, of course I thought she should speak up some. And Claire used to be so spineless, running the second we tried to tell her about magic hiding as much as she could. Joseph had tried telling me before it was just her mind protecting itself but whatever it was she seemed to be over it and I liked her much better now that she actually fought for herself.

"Okay, let's go!" Audra said, "We'll come get Claire later."

"You can leave a sign," suggested Rhodenthe. I nodded in agreement and turned and ran to get rocks then came back and arranged them into an arrow.

"Why didn't you just do that to catch your girlfriend?" asked Herman gesturing towards where I had been suggesting that he meant my speed. I grinded my teeth, it wouldn't matter what I said about the girlfriend comment. Anything I did would only make it worst.

But I could answer the real question, "Because I didn't know where she was going, I was more likely to get lost then catch her."

"We have to go, NOW!" shouted Audra. I nodded and she seemed to let out a deep breath when everyone finally gathered around.

"Hold hands," Rhodenthe said grabbing my hand, Jaromir took my other, "or else we will be separated."

"Jump on three," Jaromir said.

"One," Audra began.

"Two," Herman said with her. I'm sorry Claire, I thought, I will be back.

"Three," they all said together and we all stepped forward.

We had come back to Earth. Joseph and Kelly had both been there already it had been 3 days for them since Claire and I had left, although for Claire and me it had been much longer than that. Of course Kelly was firing questions left and right at the protectors almost immediately. It was Joseph who noticed Claire missing. I told them she had decided to stay there and we had left her with directions on how to get back. But my look must have told him otherwise, he didn't ask more but he wasn't happy.

I wasn't either. How could I be sure she knew how to get here? What if she came in the wrong time or came when we weren't there? I wanted to be sure her powers wouldn't go out of control and that nobody attacked her. I wanted to be sure Annie and Jerold didn't scare her to much to make her forget how to get here or that the queens and kings didn't find out she was part of the reason their Protectors aren't there. I was beginning to want to go back. But there was no time; I explained everything Claire and I had figured out to Kelly, Joseph, and the Protectors. Most of it was just theories with very little proof. The writing on the stone was enough though. We had to go find Jane, the Openers leader (Kelly is the one who remembered the name) and see if she would help us. Claire had said something about Jane loving Earth. But she had been mumbling a lot of stuff at first; she had been in so much pain. I had done what I could but I was no Joseph, I couldn't heal her or make her feel safe and comfortable. It had been Joseph who finally convinced her to join us, I just couldn't talk to people the way he could.

Now we were going to Jane though. Audra and Kelly had both agreed it was worth a shot. I walked in my normal place, the back. How did the fastest person in a group end up in the back? I had no clue. I just knew it was always where I usually walked when we walked in big groups. Kelly usually would fall back beside me and Joseph would be in front, people respected us more if they thought he was in charge. But now she was walking beside Joseph, the way she had the whole time I had been there. Whatever had happened, it had tied Kelly more firmly to Joseph.

The protectors walked in just a big group. Audra had, naturally, taken the lead. We were going back to where this had all began, in the field. We had no clue of how to fine Jane other then hope she was close enough to hear us. I wondered if Claire was coming back, I didn't like leaving the portal without someone, anyone there. But with Annie and Jerold somewhere around here and a lack of a large amount of people we couldn't afford to leave anyone behind. I offered to be a messenger if someone stayed there or to stay there myself and have Kelly just come get me if I was needed but if Jane was behind this we needed to stay together. We were just going by what Claire, the only one not here, said.

"Jane! We need to talk about you about the werewolf female," yelled Kelly. Audra looked annoyed so I guess she wasn't supposed to do that but we were in the field now. I hadn't even noticed. We had no clue how far forward or backward this world was in the future since Kelly and Joseph had just gotten here themselves. For all we knew this could be in the future, or past. Everything looked the same though, unlike it had in the past, where Claire was.

"What did you do with her?" demanded a male voice out of the bushes. I turned and smiled internally at that, Claire wouldn't like it that the voice had come from behind us. It annoyed her when people snuck up on her but she had a tendency to be quite unaware of her surroundings. A man stepped out of the bushes; I immediately tensed at his expression. He had messy black hair and red eyes filled with hate. Kelly seemed to recognize him. She bumped against Joseph.

"You recognize him?" Joseph guessed after studying her expression for a second.

Herman growled as she thought the answer making the three protectors look over at him then Kelly.

"One of the people from the night of the spell," she whispered hastily.

"Thorn," said a female voice I did remember. She stepped out, her beauty breath taking. Her black hair straight and looking as smooth as silk flowed behind her, her Brown eyes captivating, her hip waving slightly as she walked. I forced myself to keep my eyes on the man named Thorn, the threat. I heard Herman whisper something as he shifted towards Rhodenthe, taking up a protective position.

Audra stepped forward and called back, "Greetings Jane and Thorn." She bowed slightly, making me want to slap her. It was always best to keep as much secret as possible and the greeting she had given was a sign of the time she had come from.

"Where is Annie?" Jane asked ignoring the greeting. Thorn stepped back a step so he stood behind Jane and to her left.

"We need your help…" Audra began.

Jane did some kind of gesture with her hand and immediately 6 other people stepped up behind her, all of them a mixture of ages. I surprisingly recognized one of the girls from the school, I usually didn't pay attention to other kids but after so long in this tiny neighborhood you began to remember faces. I didn't know her name though, just that she had been popular.

Joseph nodded to her, "Heather," he said kindly as if greeting each other in the hall. It made her twitch uncomfortably. I stepped back into the group noticing I was in line with Audra, a place I didn't want to be when it came to being peaceful.

"Now, tell me, and I won't ask you again, WHERE IS ANNIE?" said Jane, her voice commanding.

"We don't know!" I growled surprised when everyone looked over at me. I ignored them although I hadn't meant to say that, "she and a guy that had captured me then captured Claire after she escaped from Annie ran to go catch a portal."

Joseph took the lead now, "They could be anywhere."

"Annie couldn't have meant any harm…" Jane said trailing off.

"Claire had been trapped, in a bunch of tunnels, alone. For about three days she had no food, no water, no medicine, nothing. She escaped and when she was finally thrown in a cage with me. Her legs were basically broken and she was cut from head to toe. ANNIE trapped her. ANNIE almost killed her. ANNIE deserves whatever fate comes her way," I growled.

"Annie had come to help trap us when we tried to help these two young mages escape, she admitted to all of this," Audra added. I ignored her glaring at Jane wishing I had Annabelle's power and could make her fall to the ground in pain.

"Impossible," said one of the newer people, I ignored them. A couple of people started to agree and say that Annie was really just a nice little werewolf trying to save the world. I snorted, yeah right. That is why she tried to kill us and almost made Claire die from lack of water. Claire had tried to take the blame for the rocks falling, saying that it was her powers. But I should have helped her with her powers more. Maybe if I hadn't let her go with Audra… My thoughts trailed off as I shook them off and tried to pay attention.

Audra was still repeating basically what I had said until everyone got it into their minds that Annie had or was going to betray them since I didn't believe that none of the other people wouldn't have done any differently. But if there were people like that, they had enough since to keep their mouths shut.

"Perhaps Annie isn't bad just confused, perhaps she thinks what she is doing is the best way to give magic to Earth," Audra suggested. I opened my mouth to disagree but closed it when I saw some of The Openers were nodding there head with agreement. "With that settled we would like to ask for your help protecting the gates of Avalon one last time."

And here I am, back where I started, where I first learned about my powers. Joseph and Kelly both had parents who would have noticed their absence so after all of this we all planned to jump though the portal again, hopefully for the last time. I on the other hand did not. I had 6 brothers and sisters and my mom took care of us all. I had three older siblings, my two older brothers took care of the money and my older sister helped with the two babies along with my twin sister. This meant I came and went as I pleased. This also meant no one would care, or notice if I disappeared for three days then came back got some new clothes and money from my room then left again. Well Jonathan, my oldest brother might notice. He had been trying to convince me to give my money to mom who would most likely spend it on alcohol before we can even hand her a shopping list.

The fact my family wouldn't notice me also meant I could sneak in and get out. I heard screaming, sounded like Jonathan was yelling at which ever guy my mom had brought over this time. I snuck through the back into my room. I immediately pulled off my old clothes, tossing them aside and grabbed new ones from a box underneath my bed. Most of them were hand-me-downs but I really couldn't care less. I left the complaining to my sisters. Throwing them on I reached under my mattress and grabbed a picture I had found of mom when she was younger; she looked happy and full of life. The way I wished she really was. Also the best place to hide money. I took the picture out of the frame; behind it was a hundred fifty dollars I had collected from just doing small jobs for the neighbors when I could. Mowing lawns, pet sitting, grabbing things from the store, etc. I put a hundred in my front pocket and fifty in back in case Jonathan caught me; I could give him fifty and still have enough money for food for everyone for a couple of meals, hopefully more if Kelly or Joseph helped.

I wondered out of my room, even though I hated it here for some reason I felt drawn like a moth to a light. I told myself I didn't want to be here but yet I did. I shook my head; things were better the way they were now. I turned to walk away when a voice called my name. I automatically turned towards it, only to see the one person I hadn't been expecting. It was Casey, the second youngest. She was 5 years old and had always been my favorite of my siblings.

"William!" I hesitated before getting down on my knee to respond.

"Where were you?" She asked as she hugged me. I pulled her up onto my knee trying to think of an answer but coming up with nothing.

"Yes, where were you?" said another voice, Jonathan.

I stood up trying to think of a fast response. I was about to just say I had been studying for a science project with Kelly which we both knew meant up early and out late when he continued, "the police came. Do you know how much trouble you could have got mom in if they found out about us? Do you know what could have happened if she had been drunk as badly as usual? She could be in prison all because you weren't here and neither were your now officially missing friends." I gulped, so they knew they were missing. Jonathan was protective of mom because he believed she just need time to get over dad's death. My father, her only husband died before I was born. My mom had me and my sister, Jessica then slowly started getting more and more drunk and going missing and bringing weird guys home. But Jonathan knew her before that happened and apparently at one time she had been an okay mom, not mom of the year but better then she is now.

"You want my money? Take it," I said shoving my money into Jonathan's hands, "I have to go." I turned and ran ignoring the yelling and cursing going on behind me. I felt bad about Casey; if anything bad happened and I never came back I hoped this didn't scar her. But I would come back, and if I didn't maybe Claire would, perhaps she could go around telling the parents what had happened, well maybe not everything but at least that we had passed away. I hadn't told her or anyone else about my family but maybe she would see Casey and guess. I doubted it but it made me feel better as I ran towards thee hallow tree with the money I had left.

The Openers had all left except for John, a vampire. He kept quiet, which I appreciated right now. I now stood by the portal field. Kelly had come through with $20 and Joseph with $35. $155 was enough to buy money for the seven of us, not including the Openers for about 2 meals. If we all skipped breakfast that would be one day of food, maybe longer if we eat smaller portions than normal or if the Openers help by bringing food.

The one thing I hadn't thought about was the time change. The protectors and I had all eaten dinner already and were exhausted. Kelly and Joseph had eaten a breakfast of some kind of chicken tasting meat and bread (I didn't even want to ask more about that) a while ago and were hungry. We were also going to need blankets, pillows, and toiletries. Kelly insisted on buying at least a brush, a comb, deodorant, toothpaste, toothbrushes, toilet paper, and blankets. I tried to disagree, food was more important, but Joseph agreed although he said toothbrushes and deodorant were unnecessary and too pricey for all of us to get one and we could all share one brush. The rest was needed though so they went out to get it. I let them take my money, trusting them to at least spend it better then my mom would have if I had given the money to her.

I had been checking for Annie for awhile now, I wasn't finding anything. I didn't like leaving the portal field; I was kind of worried and would feel guilty if Claire got hurt on either side of the portal. It had been my stupid idea to check the portal field in the first place. I turned bumping my head and fist against the tree.

"Why did I have to go into that field, why couldn't she have stayed with Joseph," I growled.

"She would have ended up in that field anyways," said a female voice behind me. I turned to familiar dark brown hair and deep green eyes, Kelly. She looked like her element, and although she was a pain I could see why Joseph liked her. She was pretty, not as beautiful as Jane but not ugly either.

"How do you know that?" I growled back.

"Because she wouldn't have let you go alone and eventually you would have had to go and check out the field since I was better off sitting in the library trying to learn as much about magic history as possible and Joseph was better off trying to talk to the people. Of course it would have been infinite times better with Claire there; they really like their air mages there."

I shook my head; it was still my fault though, even if she had still come to the portal fields with me I could have argued more against the spell thing or not have wanted her to become part of the group so badly. Why couldn't I have let her be? Kelly turned away from me towards the portal field, or where I thought it was.

"Is this where you think Portal Field should be?"

"It is where we popped in at," I said stared out at the towering long grass and the small path that had been made by everyone trying to get out of it.

"Where was it in the past?"

"Not here, I think it was up by the great lakes," I said, "but if we popped in here hopefully Claire will too."

"In the time side of the Portal Fields there is only one place to pop in and one place to pop out," said another voice. Audra stepped out. "The four stones are located to the north of the west castle."

"To the west here is California. Northwest would be Oregon, Washington, then from there up it is Canada," Kelly said.

"None of those names are familiar to me," Audra said shaking her head.

"They shouldn't be," Kelly pointed out, "and you guys said you didn't travel over an ocean to anywhere."

"No, past the salty waters were unknown to us. We were happy where we were and didn't know the world went further than that. The south belongs mostly to the Werewolves with some humans and Vampires and to the north where the cold was uncomfortable for most mages at least 80% of the time is where most Vampires lived."

"And there were very few normal people when you left?"

"Normal people are not the same to us as they are to you; we don't see them as intelligent beings as you would say. The vampires need their blood since they can't drink the blood of people with magic and werewolves enjoy causing havoc upon their cities."

"What about non-magical animals?" Kelly questioned.

"There were very few," Audra responded.

"Explains why the Indian found them so sacred then," I mumbled.

"It also explains how they got there and why they went as far ahead in their technology as the rest of the world, they didn't have enough time to update their technology," Kelly said obviously amazed by all of this.

I stared out at the field when I heard grass moving. Trying to hide how excited I had been when I figured out it was just the wind.

"She'll be back," Audra said. I just nodded my head trying to hide how impatient I was feeling. "Now come on before it gets too dark."

I woke up confused. I shot up feeling the blanket underneath me, was this all a dream? I looked around, but I couldn't see anything, only shadows which told me this wasn't my room. But my slow, half-asleep mind could only remember things step by step. "Claire," I whispered closing my eyes and counting down from 10 before opening them and looking around. They were a little bit more adjusted. I growled I was tired of reliving nights with no-moon. I could see enough to know I was in the tree cave but my brain, still half asleep couldn't comprehend why I was here.

"William?" I heard a voice I recognize, Joseph. Finally my brain caught up to where I was.

"Yeah," I responded blinking the rest of the sleep out of my eyes.

"You mind starting your turn as guard?" Joseph asked, "I didn't want to wake up Kelly, if I don't sleep now I will be useless tomorrow." I wanted to argue that he should just wake up Kelly but I was unsure I could go back to sleep anyways.

"The Openers put a couple cute girls out there, twins. And one of them ones to talk," I saw a flash of white as he smiled, "I know you love the noisy one."

I took a deep breath, "might as well get this over with." Joseph laughed and I cursed him mentally, I could already hear the high pitch female voice going off about who knows what. I ducked out of the cave like tree.

"So, she said that he said that she said she wanted those shoes," the female voice said. I let the voice fade away to the background as I glanced in the direction the voice came from and saw two girls like Joseph had said there would be. The one talking had long light colored hair that I guessed was blonde. The girl next to her had short dark colored hair. There was a familiar female figure sitting across from them, Rhodenthe. The girl with the long hair had gone onto what happened when he (whoever _he_ may be) found out she didn't like the shoes. Rhodenthe sighed and sat back staring at the sky. I seemed to have caught her eye for her head stopped and turned toward me.

"Look! It is William," she said jumping up. She walked over to me, "I don't want to be mean but I really would prefer to go to sleep then listen to this."

"That bad," I whispered surprised that Rhodenthe, the nice person she was, could even feel annoyed. She nodded her head completing the half circle around me and smiling at the girls. "William this is Cathy," she gestured towards the girl with the long hair, "and Catherine," she gestured towards the girl with the short hair. "Don't get them confused, I am going to go get Jaromir." She turned and left, fled more like it. So much for being nice, perhaps her niceness ran out when there is a girl around whose more annoying then Audra and Annabelle put together.

"So, as I was saying," Cathy said as she launched back into full story mode. But I was ignoring her only grunting or nodding my head when she paused. My eyes were on the forest. I was having one of those feelings where you are feeling watched, where you are feeling that something isn't right. I saw a shadow and the crunch of leaves, I shot up. I glanced over at the twins, they both looked too weak to fight, and not smart enough to not kill whatever is out there before we even know what it is.

"What is it?" a voice asked from behind me, I didn't have to look. The kindness in the high voice could belong to only one person, Rhodenthe. I don't know if her coming made me want to leave more or made me regret what I was about to do, or if the reminder of Claire is what had set me off. But without another thought I mumbled that I would be right back and I was off running.

The idea was to see who, or what it was then go back and tell the others. But then again don't all good plans fail? I was almost immediately locked in a hold, a hand clamped on my mouth. I fought and sent a punch that made my trapper set me free with a grunt but he, or she, wasn't alone, I was immediately grabbed again and this time tape wrapped my arms together and mouth closed. I tried wiggling, throwing punches wildly, but it was to light. "Now," a voice whispered into my ear, I could only tell it was female although it was familiar, "where's your sweet little girlfriend. Wouldn't want her to miss out on all the fun, now would we?" I growled curses but they were cut off by the tape. I struggled but then as something touched my back I felt a sharp pain, almost electric that made me cut off in a whimper of pain, "That is only a warning fire mage," spat the voice, "now you will cooperate or the pain will get much worse."

"Come along Annie," groaned a male voice from right behind me. Cloth tied around my eyes, cutting off my sight. This made me squirm in protest again but I stopped again when I felt a hand go to my back.

"Very good, you are learning," said Annie as she pushed me forward, into the woods. I tried to remember how many steps and turns I took so I could backtrack but I quickly lost track. It seemed like we were going around in circles but I really had no clue. I thought about turning and trying to run but I still had a hand on my back and one wrapped around my arm. If I ran, whatever she did she would do again and I would end up stuck in this same position again although with twice as much pain. Then suddenly the ground disappeared and I fell for a second before the ground came back and I stumbled. The hand pushed me and I continued walking again.

It wasn't long before I heard the male voice curse then suddenly the hand disappeared from my back, I heard some grunts and distant yelling and before I knew what was happening I felt my blindfold being pulled away along with the tape on my mouth.

"Claire?" I said surprised. Then she leaned forward pressing her lips against mine, surprising me even more. Then slowly I relaxed into it but then was frozen in spot when she pulled away.

"What did you do to him?" I heard another familiar voice, Annabelle. "Oh well, come on."

I was still shocked and Claire giggled pulling my hand leading me through the undergrowth. I looked around. There was Annabelle, Claire, and one other lady. I could just barely recognize the Valdamor portal field. The weeds all were shorter and the portals were marked, not well but there was a large rock in front of one. We ran to this one. "This will bring us back in time then we will go from there to the right time or else we have to go to Earth at this time and I do NOT want to go back to that time," Claire said.

"Let's go!" Annabelle said and without any explanation as to what just happened we all held hands and jumped through the portal.

* * *

MOL (muahahaha out loud) at last I have done what I have planned to do all along.

William: Wow!

Claire: Haha I had to come and save the day.

Annabelle: With me there always is something going on.

Joseph: Aww man, I was going to be team me.

Nope I like the sound of Clairiam more the Closeph. LOL Please review and thank you to those who have.

^..^*Crystalpath*^..^


	17. May Air Light Your Path

-Authors Note-

Hey you guys, I hope you are enjoying my story. It is almost done, the next chapter will be the last but in this one alot of things are happening at once so I just want to give you a heads up about that. I do switch charecters and secrets are told so it may be a bit confusing. The point-of-views switch alot so the order it goes in is Claire, William, Annabelle, Joseph, then Claire again. They are all seperated by lines. I hope you enjoy!

**Chapter 16**

**May Air Light Your Path**

"If we open a quarrel between past and present, we shall find that we have lost the future."  
Winston Churchill

I had been right; we had been missing too much information. I had gone 400 years after the year we had been in and before 2010. Annabelle had helped me with the reading part. Of course I hadn't planned on there being humans there. We had needed to hide and of course a war broke out right above out heads. It was crazy but Annabelle and I had survived. From there we went to Valdamor and talk to the queen and got the information I needed. We were on our way home when we saw William, Annie, and Jaromir. We rescued William; well more I had rescued him while Annabelle distracted Jaromir and Annie. Now we were running for our lives back into the correct time. We went back to when I had first met with Annabelle and we jumped into the portal the first time. We took the portal William and the protectors had taken. Annabelle had told we time traveling was hard to master and even the pros could only get you within day range of the time you want to go to. The big portals in portal field could only get you within a month or sometimes a week of the time you want to go to.

I glanced over at William, who was staring at me; he had been since I had kissed him. It wasn't my fault Annabelle's favorite topic was talking about how much he liked me. I had spent about a week with her telling me about it repeatedly. Although he seemed to be in shock while we were waiting for the portal to 2010 he had told us he had spent only about 6 hours in the right time on Earth, but it was three days ahead of time. I only hoped that we got sent back to that same time, too much earlier before that and we could cause problems in the timeline and end up with more than just one me at the same time zone. Too late and we could end up coming home to a magic war over nothing but lies and misunderstandings.

Finally the portal opened and we all jumped through, I was getting better at this. We landed in a field of tall grass. There was a big circle of patted grass and one line. William smiled at this saying he is the one who created it which meant we came after he made it. But what we didn't know was who was there. I explained quickly to William that the queen shouldn't be seen until we had everyone, including Annie and Jerold in a group. Annabelle said that she had yelled at them to meet us in the field where we first went through a portal back in this time. But we didn't know if Annie would come let alone when she would come or if she already had. The queen trusted me and Annabelle didn't think Audra would like seeing her so William had to go alone.

* * *

So off into the spooky, and apparently werewolf filled woods I went. I had to agree that it was best for Annabelle to stay with the queen but I had tried to convince them to let Claire come with me. For some reason I couldn't imagine being separated from her again, I hadn't noticed how much it had hurt when she had been gone until I noticed how good, how right it felt for her to be walking beside me again.

They had refused, the queen seemed to trust Claire more than anyone else, and I guess it was the whole air mage thing, or it could just be us. I was still a stranger and Annabelle…well was Annabelle.

I had tried to ask, repeatedly what exactly they were planning. But they had ignored me. That frustrated me but something told me I would know soon enough.

"William!" I heard a voice call. "You guys! I found him!"

It was Joseph, he came running up, "hey bro, what happened? I heard you got up then magically disappeared. Kelly didn't transport you on accident or anything, did she?"

"No, it was Annie and Jerold. I'm fine now, how long have I been gone?"

"A good two to three hours, it has to be close to 5AM now. How did you escape?"

"I got help; Annie and Jerold took me back in time. But now we all have to get out to the field, we have to get everyone together. Protectors, Openers, Annie, Jerold, and us."

"Got it," Kelly called, "magically appearing notes shall be sent to everyone immediately, AGAIN."

I raised an eyebrow, "do I want to know what her problem is?"

"Really, I don't think you do," Joseph said, "but I will talk to her. It is probably a good idea to go get Claire now."

"I've got that covered," I said.

"You shouldn't," Joseph began.

I interrupted, "who do you think rescued me?" I turned away without waiting for an answer and ran back to the portal field, no longer needing to keep an eye out for people looking for me.

* * *

I turned, when I heard William come to a stop. I started creeping backwards seeing that he was talking to Claire, the queen watching them. I turned, running quietly and quickly through the weeds. I was sure at least one of them heard. William was the only one with a chance of catching me though and I could feel how unwilling he was to leave Claire and Claire's fear of leaving the queen and the queen's fear of so much as moving a step away from the portal, her only way home.

I couldn't take with being around people so much; I really wasn't a social person. I was screaming mentally and having a hard time keeping calm. I wanted to just yell at everyone to leave me alone, of course it was partially my fault. I couldn't handle seeing people get injured or killed if there was something, anything I could do. I fell onto my knees, my hand on the ground, if it weren't for them I wouldn't be able to sit up. I was so exhausted, taking pain from whoever was injured, trying to located people with high levels of fear. Evelyn had told me not to overwork myself, of course I had ignored her, I had my powers for a reason and I would use them to my full ability.

I was ready to just collapse but I pushed myself upright though, I had to keep going. A war would happen if I didn't keep all of the emotions calmed down. Scared people were unpredictable.

"Well Annabelle, I would say I am surprised to see you but we always did have a knack for finding each other, didn't we," I recognized the voice.

"Andromeda?" I asked.

"Hello Annabelle, I am surprised you remember me."

"How can I forget the child I was sent into the future to save?"

"You told me you were going to come back for me," Annie said her voice saddening. I could feel her pain. Why would it matter if I was there?

"And I was told I would see you again, and I guess I am just not as soon as I would have hoped."

"Did you know my parents died a few days after you left? I was passed around as an unwanted foster child until 18 when I moved out and joined Jane."

"I'm sorry, I didn't know. I wasn't told about anything. Once I got back I became the greeter. I was assigned to greet newcomers and help when there were arguments. Then Rosalie and Evelyn started fallowing me and I became basically their mentor. Andromeda I have been busy, I have been working for the royalty and even if I did have a chance to do one thing for myself I was watched to closely to so much as go near the portals. I was going to when the protectors left but then Claire found me and asked for help. I am very, very sorry. If I had known how bad the situation was I would have prevented it. But I didn't."

"Don't make excuses, how could you have known when my brother was being born and not about my parents dying?"

"Because your brother would have became an evil mastermind and come back in time and destroyed the world, I was called from the new future to figure out how to stop that from happening without killing him."

"So if I have Jerold kill you will someone come and give me to new parents too?" she asked, tears streaming down her face.

"No, if you kill me now nothing will have, well nothing I know of for it hasn't happened yet. Some wars would have been different. Some lost, some won. Some people may never have been born if I hadn't saved their parents or if I didn't save them, but nothing big enough to cause someone to have to go in to the future or past."

"So I can kill you? And you wouldn't care," said another voice. I looked over and saw a black haired man.

I shook my head, "I would kind of care that I couldn't give up my life for someone else like I would have liked to but dying as punishment for the pain of someone I care about that I had the power to stop is fine by me."

"LIES! I could fix everything; people would care if you die."

"Yes, they would. But I am but one person of many people."

"You are one important person."

"I'm not that important."

"It doesn't matter!" Andromeda screamed. "Jerold freeze her!"

I screamed as everything froze and went black.

"Claire!" I called happily smiling at her. I was only partly aware of Kelly beside me. I had gotten so use to it that it just felt normal now. William stood beside Claire, they both didn't look happy. Claire smiled a smile that didn't touch her eyes as a lady stepped out behind them. She was beautiful with her brownish-grey hair held up in a bun and her long silky dress-like robe added nicely to her royal look.

"Hi Joseph," she said trying to sound lighthearted and joyful but failed and gave up quickly.

"Is Annabelle with you?" William said getting straight to the point. I raised an eyebrow.

"Who is Annabelle?"

"No, don't tell me you guys brought her here!" said a lady behind me, Audra. I glanced back at her.

"She helped me get here," Claire said loud with fear.

"Who is Annabelle?" Kelly asked.

"No!" Audra yelled, "Why? Of all people why her? Oh Annabelle! She is going to kill herself walking alone with Annie running around here!"

"You should have told her about Andromeda's parents," growled a male voice. A second later Herman stepped out of the bushes as if summoned forward, which I guess he could have been.

"If I did that she would have killed herself even sooner," Audra growled.

"Who is Andromeda and why would Annie care about her?" asked Claire.

"Wait!" yelled Kelly.

"Who the heck is Annabelle?" we both said at the same time.

"My fiancé," growled William, sounding annoyed. I looked at him shocked and felt Kelly stiffened beside me.

"He is joking," Claire said bumping William with her hip and to my surprise he caught her before she could bounce away and held her beside him.

"She is a powerful mage, who was basically raised by Rhodenthe when her parents couldn't control her powers and things started getting out of hand" Audra said and I pulled my eyes off of Claire looking over at her. She could be Claire's grandmother if she didn't have such an oval face and if Claire didn't have such long but thin arms and legs. They both had grayish-blue eyes and light blonde hair and pale skin.

Kelly and I had been told all protectors looked according to their elements but I had still had been surprised at how, even after 800 years we still look the same as the past protectors.

"She has the power of feelings, physical AND emotional. She is very light-hearted and kind, a nice person to be around if you are in the mood for someone as happy as she can be. We use her as our secret weapon kind of, helping to calm people if we need them calmed, take pain if someone is in pain and is about to die but wishes to have a final word with their loved ones or just need to have a painful surgery done. She greets people, calming people who wish to cause us harm and helping people who are frightened and lost. She is able to track people with the feelings of pain and fear for miles and I have watched her do this. She did it a couple times for Claire when she was in our time."

"Andromeda's brother was basically a crazed evil genius with a want to kill everyone, so he went into the past. So when that happened I hopped back in time and had Annabelle go and see what she could do to prevent that from happening and she did it apparently. I can't remember but she can and she has told me repeatedly about her experiences and how much she had loved Andromeda and wished for her child, if she ever had one to be like her. What she didn't know is a few years later I got a message from the future telling us that Andromeda's parents died and they wanted Annabelle to take her. Annabelle at the time had been basically assigned to Rosalia and Evelyn so we couldn't let her go. If we had this situation would be much, much worst."

"And let me guess Andromeda is with Annie," William growled.

Herman sighed, "If she isn't far all we have to do is start crying."

"Or walk around thinking of the scariest thing you can think of," suggested Kelly.

"If she is an emotion mage that might work," I agreed.

"That would work perfectly!" Rhodenthe said coming out from the undergrowth to stand with us. "Being a healing mage I know a little bit about having an affinity for emotions and that would be easy enough to feel if people all over the place were in panic."

"Especially for someone as powerful as her," Herman said going to stand next to Rhodenthe, "Probably best to stay in groups though. If we all split and Annie runs into one of us alone…well then we would really have to hope Annabelle is around here somewhere."

At that point this conversation was about to just go in circles so I nodded and looked over at Claire trying to force her to say something with my eyes, I had no power here. The water mage is looked upon as the weakest member in the magic world. If she spoke the Protectors would listen, if William spoke they would listen although be prepared to argue, if Kelly spoke they might listen to her but only for a while, if I spoke the Protectors might listen if I say something important.

"Ah!" a scream sounded behind me, immediately everyone seemed to start towards it. Audra flied, well more like leaped and levitated. Jaromir led Herman and Rhodenthe. Kelly and I ran behind them with Claire and William ahead of us until suddenly stopped. I swerved around them looking back with Kelly to see if they needed help. Claire nodded at me, standing next to the Queen and to my surprise; again, William kissed her cheek then turned and ran to catch us with us.

"Wow," I said referring to him and Claire. It was new…I had to admit I really didn't like it but Claire and I had never really been more then friends and now Kelly and I were kind of together so I guess it was kind of fair in a way…

"Claire is going to stay with the queen. She is powerful enough to throw around some rocks and make enough noise if she needs help, I will go back once I check to make sure everything is fine here," he said running along behind and between Kelly and me. I couldn't tell if he was trying to defend his reason for coming with us or trying to convince himself Claire was going to be fine. But it didn't matter because we were there within seconds.

"NO!" I heard a scream.

"ANNABELLE!" Rhodenthe cried trying to rush forward, Herman held her back. My eyes were on the man with a lady lying in his arms, almost as if she were just sleeping but her soft brown hair, blowing in the wind was the only part of her moving. A lady turned around beside him, one I recognized slightly. Annie.

I was pacing when I heard voices and Annabelle's name.

* * *

"Oh, no," I cried but then I heard growling and what sounded like more yelling.

"We have to go check it out," I said turning to face the queen. Her face showed no emotion, which I have to admit was starting to become really creepy.

"Okay," she said getting up with a gentle sigh, "but remember I did not come here just to solve problems young protector, I came here to give the truth; nothing more."

"I promise nothing more will be asked of you but you have to put up with this craziness for a little bit, I apologize for it but what must be done must be done," I said fighting to keep my voice calm and my body still as I slowly turned and walked, a little too quickly, toward where the other went.

Sooner than I expected voices sounded becoming louder and louder, they were arguing I noted. Anger, which meant Annabelle, was injured or…no she couldn't be dead she probably was just stunned or deeply injured and being kept away from the healing water mages. Finally we came to edge of a clearing. I immediately noticed Annie, Jerold who had Annabelle lying at his feet (if she was alive or asleep or injured I didn't know). The sight of Annabelle made me want to run but I stopped myself in mid-movement when I finally noticed how many people were there. There were people in both modern and old looking clothes standing behind Annie and Jerold. I gave it about a rough estimate of 15 people including Annie and Jerold over there. Behind Audra stood Jane and about 8 people standing with them who were separated from the 6 people who stood with Herman, Rhodenthe, Jaromir, Kelly, Joseph, and William. This confused me so I strained my ear to listen.

"-been too long. Earth is nothing without it open," Audra was saying.

"But Audra," Jaromir began, "Earth has developed well from what we have heard and seen, would magic have a good or bad effect?"

"The gates must be open," Annie said stepping forward obviously wanting to begin a big speech, "the time of no magic has come to an end! The gates must be open, it is either open or close. Decide NOW!"

The comment seemed to be directed towards Audra's group but Audra seemed unfazed.

"You are sadly mistaken my dear Annie," Jane said stepping forward but Audra stopped her.

"I can take care of this," Audra growled making me strain harder to hear her.

"Obviously you can't" Jane commented.

"Choose!" ordered Annie.

My mind rushed forward trying to comprehend what was going on. So Annie's group seemed to want the gate open and obviously the other group, my group wanted the gates to stay as they were. But what about Audra's group, what did they want?

"Annie, the gates don't have to open all the way all Earth needs is some magic, not a big dump of magic all at once," Jane said answering my question.

Now I had the full story, now I just needed a good chance.

"But the gates-" someone started but I didn't even have a chance to identify who the voice belonged to before the queen stepped out.

"The gates were never closed!" she called.

I sighed fallowing her, leave it to the queen to step out into a big crowd of people who were about to break out into a war.

"Hello again Claire," Annie said I turned toward her immediately shrinking back but William (who had, last time I check been standing on the other side of the field) stopped me with a gentle hand on my back.

"Don't let her scare you," he whispered into my ear and I straightened at those words.

"I," called the queen, "am Queen Isabelle."

"And I, am Claire" I called. "Many of you know me. You are my enemies and my friends which at this point are basically my family. But some of you don't. I am the air mage of the year 2010. I have traveled through time and to Earth to Valdamor. Only to find the truth, the gates of Avalon were never closed!"

"What? I am going to close them myself! They do close."

"No, if they did it may have stopped many Earth villains from being created in the past. Vampires killing millions of humans, werewolves going crazy, witches going power hungry. You did try Audra but you see, you couldn't get them closed."

"And what, do you think these rules will make us stop trying to open the gates of Avalon?" asked Jane, "My dear Queen Isabelle I deeply apologize for you being dragged here today but magic on Earth is needed."

"And it is here," I said taking center stage in the middle of the field, "go ahead, do what you want but the magic is here, if it wasn't you would be able to use your powers."

"Then what about you and your friends gaining power, or was that not because the gates have began to open?" Annie pointed out.

"The Protectors are only as strong as the magic in their area. The more powerful the people the more powerful the protectors, it helps to make it so they always have the upper hand in a battle," Herman said behind me making me jump. I had to stifle a laugh at this, with Annabelle always keeping me calm it had been awhile since I had jumped at something behind me.

"Then how did the people get powerful?" called a voice somewhere in Audra's group.

"Yeah," some more voices agreed.

"What about the prophecy the children had said?" said one of Annie's followers.

"And why hasn't there been protectors before, there were magic people."

"There is a simple answer to all of your questions!" I called, "The Openers."

"Ha! That is your answer, we didn't do anything you child," Jane said coming to stand in front of me, "see this child knows nothing. The gates are closed; we must open them enough to bring magic to Earth.

"No I am not! I mean, yes I am a child but that's not what I mean," I stumbled.

"The Openers had become more powerful as they trained with their powers," said a recognizable voice.

"Jaromir," I said surprised that he of all people would come and defend me.

"As they used more spells and more people started using magic again, even just to do experiments on the stones, they became more powerful. So the Openers did have something to do with the Protectors coming back," Jaromir said.

"And there could have been four in the past just not powerful enough to be noticed. They could easily just have been described as good at magic tricks, fast, good at reading people, smart, etc. There is nothing saying they weren't there, just hidden," I said.

"And what about magic on Earth?" someone, I don't know who, said.

"The animals, have all gone extinct and same with the plants," someone else added, Earth was a better place with magic."

"No, it wasn't. First of all only North America really had magic and humans were treated like animals and non-magical animals were treated even worst. Sure it was fine for powerful witches and wizards but vampires were ignored, werewolves were made fun of, and the weaker your powers were, the less important you were," I added.

There was no response for a second then everyone broke out in agreeing tones.

"WHAT? You are going to listen to a child, and her friends. She doesn't know what she is saying," Annie said.

"They have a point," a lady with grayish blonde hair said coming out from behind Annie to join my group. "Claire, may be a child but I have heard stories from the protectors," she smiled at William, "and she has been through enough within this past month to be considered an adult."

She smiled at me. "I second that," said a guy with red eyes that was very familiar stepped out to stand beside me.

"Thorn," Jane started staring at him surprised.

"Enough of this nonsense," his voice was deep, "you have kept me running around in circles for you for years. Now even if the gates really are closed, the point is, there already is magic and the picture of the past the created is not the real thing. You made it look good when really all you care about is crating the childhood full of magic which you were unable to have."

"Thorn," Jane said with more order in her voice then surprise.

"No, it is over," Thorn growled.

There was clapping behind me, "Go Thorn!" I heard someone scream.

So slowly, more and more people came to stand beside me until four people were left in front of me Jane, Annie, Jaromir, and Audra. Jane nodded, "You are right," she said. "I see that now," she walked over to stand with us I wanted to yell at her but just resorted to rolling my eyes at the ground before look up at the remaining three, well four including Annabelle who still lay at the ground at Jaromir's feet.

"You will regret this, you all will! None of you are any better than Annabelle," Annie said backing away then turning away with a flip of her air she orders Jaromir to fallow.

"No," he said.

"Excuse me?" Annie said.

"I have three things ya should no. One, I do not take orders. Two, I do not give up after a sad excuse made by some children. Three, I am better off in my own time zone."

Annie stood there looking shocked as if Jaromir had never spoken before in his life.

"Good bye, y'all, I would say I hope to see ya again but truthfully I don't," he said then with a snap of his fingers he was gone.

Annie stared at where he had been standing for a second.

"Now are you so brave and tough wolf? You are alone now," Herman growled stepping forward. Rhodenthe put her hand out to stop him but Annie turned flipping her hair and walking away without a single word. Audra shrank back disappearing into the undergrowth. For a minute all was quiet then people started cheering. The gates would stay the way they were.

* * *

William: Wow, you were right that was kind of confusing.

Sorry but alot was happening.

Annabelle: YOU JUST KILLED ME!

Correction, I froze you.

Annabelle: WHY?

I had to do something to throw people into action. It was the only thing I can think of.

Claire: Does she come back.

Wait and see! Please review in the mean time.

**^..^*Crystalpath*^..^**


	18. End of the Beginning

**Epilogue**

**End of the Beginning**

"A peace is of the nature of a conquest; for then both parties nobly are subdued, and neither party loser."

-William Shakespeare

_**So in the end it was all a misunderstanding. In the end everything was for nothing and yet what has happened here has made all of the difference. For now, in this moment, the time in between the time of a beginning of an end and an end of a beginning I realize that though I would give anything to go back to the way my life was, to see my father and my mother I would never be able to.**_

_**For who I am now is not the same as who I was then and I would never give up what I have now. For now, through all of the pain, through all of the time wasted on people not taking the time to get their facts straight, through everything I have lost, I have gained what I have been looking for.**_

_**I have someone who loves me, someone who understands me the way only a brother could, someone who will always be there for me just like an older sister, and a place where I truly belong. And I find that through all of the mistakes, all of the times I have almost died I wouldn't change one minutes of my past for it has made me who I am. And that, the knowing that you would never give up who you are is worth more than just sentimental value.**_

Now I stood with William's arms around my waist as we stare watching Kelly practice popping in and out of thin air as she tried to tag Joseph who was running through the trees, both of them laughing when she got close.

Everyone had left. The Protectors had taken Annabelle casting a spell to close the portals to different time zones permanently before they left, no one from this day on would go through those portals. Time traveling was just too dangerous and unpredictable. We could still get to Valdamor and to a couple different places around North America though. They told us Annabelle would be taken care of, they had great shaman and wizards there who are skilled and will easily bring her back. I regretted never being able to see her again but I was glad to have this whole thing behind me.

Not all of the Openers were happy but the word spread through their amazingly large group (the people here weren't the only ones. They were spread out across the world) and the Gates of Avalon were not to be messed with. Joseph, Kelly, William, and I went on with life as normal. The gates couldn't be touched and power couldn't be taken. That was all basically a big myth. Kelly thinks the Protectors were more or less suppose to just be the leaders which in the end that really is what they were. This all means that since there weren't really any big groups of magic users other then the Openers which were slowly falling apart, there was nothing for us to do.

Everything had happened so fast these last couple months. First my father died in a car accident. Then after that we had to have his funereal and my mom seemed to slowly die. We quickly started running out of money and people started to notice that she wasn't taking care of me. So three months later my grandparents finally stepped in and now I am in Glens Falls, New York, thousands of miles from my mom and my friends.

And if you though it couldn't get any worst I soon got this prophecy, a dream and when we tried playing with it to see what would happen we ended up on another planet then soon after we ended up 800 years back in time to find ourselves surrounded by bad guys ending up in traps left and right being captured then escaping repeatedly.

But in the end it all turned out to be myths, misunderstandings, and confusion. In the end all it took was me finding out the truth from the future. My mother had began to get better but the night before I was suppose to go back to her, to my old home she died of a heart attack. We had her funeral soon after and I believe if it hadn't been for William to help force me back into reality I would have fallen into the black hole my mom had been in.

So in conclusion; in a life of anger, love and pain, from what I've learned in the battle of staying sane, I can truthfully say no matter how much this some may rue, after everything time will continue, and eventually ice becomes rain, and fire will subdue.

* * *

Okay lets see who do I have to thank? Well first of all thank you to Emily and Liliann my two younger "sisters", you have encouraged me and helped me with some *wink wink* of the charecters. Then to my friends who let me use them as "back-up" charecters, Ben and Alexis. :) You guys are awsome thank you for being there for me! Then to my family who have put up with me talking endlessly about the story and plot every chance I get. LOL I am sure you will be relieved to be finally completely done with talking about evil werewolves. Thank you Valerie, my mother, for giving me the idea for the title of my story. Thank you Gary, my father, for making me think logically about the world I created and making it seem as if it really could happen.

Then thanks most of all to those of you who've read and become fans of my story and to those who have reviewed! I can not thank you guys enough and I thank the poeple who shall read and review this in the future, you have inspired me and given me hope. Thank you.

Now I beleive that charecters of my story have something to say:

**Claire: *sniffles***

**William: *hugging Claire***

**Annabella: *sniff* I love a happy ending!**

**Kelly: o.O So Annabella died?**

**My lips are sealed on that, I love to end the story by not ending it. MOL (muahaha out loud) It makes it so I can add more if I ever want to.**

**Joseph: But it is kind of frusterating.**

**Okay, now I will answer some questions I meant to get to but never did. So magic fallows the magic users. When everyone left to go to Voldemore so did the magic. When magic was gone everything magically became weaker and unnatural things killed them. Back in time humans were basically thought of as animals to feed vampires and use as slaves. When the magic people left and vampires began to not need blood the Human population began to grow but they were left with nothing and eventually learned how to create things and do things on thier own creating the Indians of North America.**

**This story is a mixture of my own ideas, Darkest Powers by Kelley Armstrong, and Avalon: Web of Magic by Rachel Roberts. It is my work, my ideas, my plot, my world, and my charecters. Please do not take my work without permission or siteing that it is mine. **

**Now to end this story the best way I can; by putting my logo at the bottom of this page! LOL ;)**

**^..^*Crystalpath*^..^**


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